Get the facts on education

Fact checks about schools, teacher supply, childcare universities and qualifications

Get the facts on… Qualifications and skills Spending on schools Routes after school

Academies and free schools

Fact checks focused on academies and maintained schools

Brexit and universities

Fact checks focused on the impact of Brexit on higher education establishments, universities and research funding in the UK

Childcare

Fact checks related to childcare, nursery places and foster care

Qualifications and skills

Fact checks about a-level results, GCSE results, SATs and literacy levels

Telegraph columnist wrongly claims literacy at the lowest level in UK history
3 June 2021

A Telegraph article was wrong to say literacy was at its lowest level in history, and that every international league table puts the UK near bottom for literacy and numeracy. …

Gavin Williamson did not say pupils will be overpromoted into jobs that are beyond their competence
14 August 2020

Comments about A-level results incorrectly attributed to the Education Secretary have been widely shared.

Scotland’s maths and science scores are falling in international tests but rising in national tests
14 February 2020

Boris Johnson’s claims about education in Scotland are not all quite right.

More fact checks on qualifications and skills

Grammar schools

Fact checks focused on grammar schools, free schools and educational impacts on social mobility

International education performance

Fact checks focused on international education rankings

Education fact checks

School statistics don’t show 140,000 children ‘never came back’ after pandemic disruption
11 May 2023

A figure quoted in the Sun by Baroness Karren Brady is the number of pupils who missed at least 50% of sessions last summer, not the number who’ve disappeared completely.

The numbers behind the PM’s maths claims fact checked
21 April 2023

We’ve dug into the figures behind Rishi Sunak’s claims about the negative impact of poor numeracy.

Think tank figure does not show 100,000 children ‘never went back to school’ due to lockdown
16 March 2023

Journalist Isabel Oakeshott twice claimed that 100,000 children left education permanently as a result of the pandemic.

See all education fact checks

Routes after school

Fact checks on universities, tuition fees and student debt

School places

Fact checks around the number of school places available to pupils, class sizes and inspections

Spending on schools

Fact checks on educational funding, costs per pupil, reported record levels and school meal funding

Teacher supply

Fact checks related to teacher recruitment, retention and pay