There can, surely, be no more important issue than education when it comes to the general election?

After all, empowering our county’s future generation with the knowledge and skills they require is essential to ensuring we have a talented, intelligent workforce capable of everything from handling their personal finances to becoming the cliched rocket scientist.

Not to mention being good, rounded, compassionate people.

But what can we expect from whoever wins the keys to Number 10?

Certainly, while every party delivers a good lesson in posturing and stating desired outcomes, when it comes to ‘show your working out’ they are all a little light in detail. Which, of course, points to the huge challenges facing Kent and Medway’s schools and colleges.

“Whoever becomes our next government,” reflects Ashley Crittenden, chair of the Kent Association of Leaders in Education, “they have the most monumental task ahead. There are so many services in crisis but if we do not get it right for education then we are not in a position to help build our young people of the future.”

While still a key pillar in the manifestos of all the major parties, front and centre of this election campaign it is not. The economy, housing, NHS and even immigration is dominating.

In Kent, traditionally the key issue is around the grammar system. But not so much this time around.

But then it’s a relatively low-level aspect of our national educational pyramid and we are one of the few areas in the county that persist with the selective system.

Since the Tony Blair government, the creation of new grammar schools has been outlawed. While the opening of so-called grammar ‘annexe’ schools in west Kent faced an almighty battle to get the nod.

Whereas Labour would be considered the most likely to have the selective system in its sights, it has lifted them, instead, to focus on private schools - vowing to abolish the VAT exemption they currently enjoy in order to use the funds raised elsewhere. That will effectively push the price up 20%.

Which brings with it another problem - a surge of pupils heading into state schools, with grammars being particularly prized.

And many of our schools are already feeling the strain - especially in the north west of the county, as seen with dozens in the Dartford, Gravesend and Sevenoaks districts passing their Kent Test but finding themselves not offered a grammar school.

So grammars are unlikely to see the status quo disrupted. The Conservative manifesto insists “we will further protect parents’ choice on where to send their child to school, including preserving the rights of independent and grammar schools”.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said in the past, however that she “would like to see more children educated at comprehensive schools and that means fewer children being educated at grammar and private schools” adding “you can never have a true system of comprehensive education whilst you still have selection”.

Her words, it should be said, came under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party and, as we know, much has changed since then. Labour is also unlikely to want to ruffle the feathers of the middle classes in Kent during the run-up to this election.

The Lib Dems have opposed any relaxing of the laws on new grammars in the past, but make no mention of selective schools in their manifesto. The same goes for Reform UK and the Greens.

The reality, of course, is that there is a far greater crisis unfolding which shows no signs of abating.

“The number one, two and three priorities for any incoming government when it comes to education is tackling the teacher shortage,” says former Gravesend Grammar head and education expert Peter Read, “and the bigger question is: where the hell are the teachers going to come from?”

The shortage is most acute in our secondary schools - and particularly across key subjects such as maths, the sciences (physics and chemistry in particular), computing, languages and design and technology.

A recent House of Commons select committee report, published in May, said: “While there have been welcome increases in absolute teacher numbers, these have not kept pace with pupil numbers, and there is broad agreement from witnesses that there is a crisis of teacher recruitment and retention in England.”

The National Foundation for Educational Research’s (NFER) Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2024, revealed initial teacher training in 2023/24 reached only half its target. It was slightly up on last year - but that had been a record low.

Primary was, surprisingly, below target too - despite normally hitting its goal.

Michaela Barnard, head of school for teacher education at Canterbury Christ Church University - a popular avenue into the profession for many through its teaching courses - agrees: “The shortage is challenging - especially in shortage subjects.

“Leaving rates are continuing to rise post-pandemic, but there are some green shoots. Those leaving rates are slowing down for the most recent cohort entering the profession.”

The problem is compounded by the challenges facing the existing teaching workforce.

Smaller staff rosters mean more work is piled on their shoulders. Anyone deluding themselves that teachers finish their working day when the school bell rings should be aware that many will continue working long into the night to ensure books are marked, administrative requirements are met and lessons planned.

Alongside that, is the issue of increasingly challenging pupil behaviour post-pandemic - all of which requires an additional level of management but with little additional support to assist. A squeeze on school budgets has seen the number of teaching assistants and support staff shrink over recent years.

And that’s before tackling the SEND (special educational needs) problem - namely a lack of provision and a lack of budget to achieve what is needed.

Unsurprisingly, the consequence is an exodus of the teachers already in the profession.

The NFER report added: “In 2022/23, 44% more teachers said they intended to leave teaching than in the previous year, which suggests that leaving rates may continue rising.

“Labour Force Survey data shows that, during term time, teachers work longer hours, and are more likely to perceive that they work too many hours, than similar graduates.”

Those emerging from university - traditionally the biggest pool of future teachers - are also being tempted by jobs offering hybrid working, something difficult to introduce into schools.

In 2018, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of its latest five-year international survey of teachers.

It revealed secondary teachers in England worked, on average, a 49.3 hour working week, while primary teachers reported a 52.1 hour week. The average working week for a full-time employee in the UK is around 36.4 hours.

All of which will weigh heavy on the shoulders of the parties bidding for power.

Labour has put its pledge to recruit “an additional 6,500 new expert teachers” among its top priorities, adding it will “get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackle retention issues. The way bursaries are allocated, and the structure of retention payments, will be reviewed”.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, promise to “attract more talented teachers by expanding our recruitment and retention premium and reducing workload”.

The Lib Dems insist they will “create a teacher workforce strategy to ensure that every secondary school child is taught by a specialist teacher in their subject”. The Greens acknowledge teacher shortages and “advocate for an increase in school funding, with an £8bn investment in schools that would include £2bn for a pay uplift for teachers”.

Quite how the likes of Labour will find all these “expert teachers” is not clearly explained. The proof, should they sweep to power as the polls suggest, will be in the proverbial pudding.

Reform UK don’t address the issue, preferring, instead, to focus on introducing “a patriotic curriculum in primary and secondary schools” and keeping private schools VAT-free. Although they do also propose doubling the number of Pupil Referral Units so disruptive kids can be shipped off to those.

Given grammars and the most successful non-selectives in the county tend not to face the recruitment crisis experienced by those further down the ladder, quite how they propose to effectively staff the extra PRUs remains unclear.

And that’s not all.

Adds Ashley Crittenden of the Kent Association of Leaders in Education: “There's a number of really pertinent issues.

“Child poverty is a really serious issue with schools having to support families like never before. As for the level of need from a SEND perspective, we're at crisis point. This is a big issue in Kent and a national issue.

“There needs to be a really serious look at the finances our schools have access to. We have not seen the rise that is needed. They will say they have invested in schools - that's not the case.

“Many of our children and young people are having to be educated in buildings that are not fit for purpose. As well as not having the levels of funding we need to have the high quality of staff to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable children.”

So, plenty to do for any incoming education secretary.

Then, of course, there is further education and the crucial role colleges play in offering both academic and skills-based courses.

Funding, you will not be surprised to learn, is a key concern.

“Funding rates have been challenging within the sector for many years,” explains Graham Razey, chief executive of East Kent Colleges Group, rated ‘outstanding’ in its latest Ofsted inspection.

“Following austerity we had broadly flat rates for more than a decade.

“Whilst we’ve received a small rise in the past few years, we’re still receiving a low rate given how we teach our students and the fact that we have to buy supplies for them. After all, you can’t teach a cookery student to fillet a fish, without buying a fish, and if the price has gone up by 10% over the past couple of years, but funding has remained static, we’re forced into trying to find savings somewhere.

“Another example of funding not being equitable is in our Junior College provision which teaches young people between the ages of 14 and 16. Whilst we are required to comply with the same standards a secondary school does, as an FE college provider, we only receive a fraction of the funding a school would if that young person was registered with them.”

To that end, the Greens say they will provide “a £3bn increase in funding for sixth-form education over the next parliamentary term and a £12bn investment in skills and lifelong learning for further education”.

The Lib Dems says they will “review further education funding” adding that will “include the option of exempting colleges from VAT”. Something which would provide a 20% funding boost.

The Conservatives say they will “always support and celebrate our further education colleges” and will extend financial incentives to secondary teachers in those shortage subjects to colleges too.

Labour is vowing to “transform further education colleges into specialist technical excellence colleges” that will “work with businesses, trade unions, and local government to provide young people with better job opportunities and the highly trained workforce that local economies need”.

Reform UK make no mention of further education.

And finally, of course, there are our universities - all of whom have felt the pinch and none more so than the University of Kent which has been forced to axe staff and courses.

The Lib Dems have never fully recovered from their promise to scrap tuition fees in the run-up to the 2010 election in which they found themselves in coalition with the Tories. Needless to say, they didn’t.

The Greens, however, are happy to pick up that vote-winning strategy.

The party’s manifesto says it would “fully fund every higher education student, restoring maintenance grants and scrapping undergraduate tuition fees. Our long-term plans also include seeking to cancel the injustice of graduate debt”.

The Tories, meanwhile, are planning to “close university courses in England with the worst outcomes for their students” adding: “Courses that have excessive drop-out rates or leave students worse off than had they not gone to university will be prevented from recruiting students by the universities regulator”.

Labour is a little more vague with its promises, saying: “The current higher education funding settlement does not work for the taxpayer, universities, staff, or students. Labour will act to create a secure future for higher education and the opportunities it creates across the UK. We will work with universities to deliver for students and our economy.”

Your guess is as good as mine as to what that actually means.

Ed Davey’s party, meanwhile, says it will “safeguard the future of our world-leading universities and the wellbeing of every student” with a string of promises which include “establishing a review of higher education finance in the next parliament to consider any necessary reforms in the light of the latest evidence of the impact of the existing financing system on access, participation and quality”.

Reform UK say they’ll “cut funding to universities that undermine free speech” and introduce “the option of two-year courses [which] would reduce student debt and allow earlier entry into employment to help pay it off”.

In short, education is, rather like the NHS, a service we expect to offer a high-standard level of quality but is facing challenges on a variety of fronts which few believe will be solved over the next five-year term of whoever wins on July 4.

And, like the NHS, everyone is acutely aware the money isn’t going to be there to dramatically change it quickly. The hope is that it at least starts moving in the right direction.