Small gains in prison education at risk from budget cuts
source: Russell Webster
published: 29 September 2025
Image Credit: sakhon at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Each year the prison education statistics come out from the Ministry of Justice. And each year they tell a pretty familiar story of high levels of need that prisons are struggling to meet. This year’s statistics – which cover 2024-25 and only include public sector adult prisons in England – are no different, although they do show levels of participation rising slightly.
But they come at a key juncture for prison education, with new contracts about to come in and real concern about budget cuts.
Firstly, the statistics include the results of literacy and numeracy assessments that people sent to prison complete before they engage in education. As always, they show lower levels among people in prison than in the broader population, with the majority (69% in Maths and 65% in English) at Entry Level 1-Entry Level 3.
This is very slightly lower than last year – when the equivalent figures were 73% and 71% respectively – but still much, much higher than for the population as a whole (where the equivalent figures are 49% for numeracy and 15% for literacy).
Maybe most worryingly, 20% – nearly 10,000 people – were at Entry Level 1 for literacy, the lowest level in the assessment. The National Literacy Trust notes that adults below Entry Level 1 “may not be able to write short messages to family or read a road sign”. This shows how important it is to provide additional support, often one-to-one, for this group to enable them to, if nothing else, engage with the day-to-day prison regime.
Also important is the proportion of people who have a learning difficulty and/or disability (LDD). There is no overall figure on this for the prison population as a whole, but these statistics show that over half (57%) of people in prison who took an initial assessment and then enrolled on a course had an LDD. This again shows the importance of a personalised approach that takes into account these people’s specific needs.
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