By Gavin Mackintosh-
Keighley MP, John Grovan is calling for more cash be injected into schools.
John Grogan was speaking after the Government responded to a petition protesting at cuts to school funding in the area. His call comes after a Kingston primary school launched a petition complaining about lack of funding leading to reduced teaching hours due to inevitable budget cuts. Grand Avenue primary school have complained bitterly of the effects of a funding shortage brought about by extra demand for school places overall.
The petition to which the Uk government responded was initially delivered to the government in March and signed by 1,530 people and organised by Craven ward Labour Party. It objects to primary schools in Steeton, Eastburn, Silsden and Addingham, all of which have experienced real-term reductions in pupil funding.
The petition also called for the cuts to be reversed and per-pupil funding protected over the lifetime of this parliament, together with a guarantee that no school would lose out as a result of any new funding formula. Education Secretary Damian Hinds has responded to Grovan’s call by saying that last year, the Government announced details of the national funding formula for schools which is supported by extra investment of £1.3 billion across 2018-19 and 2019-20.
“The need for reform has been widely recognised because of the manifest unfairness in the previous system.
“Given the significance of this reform, we undertook wide-ranging consultations which allowed us to hear from – and carefully consider the views of – over 26,000 individual respondents and representative organisations.” Hinds said final decisions on local distribution would be taken by education authorities, but that under the national funding formula, every school would attract at least 0.5 per cent more per pupil in 2018-19 and one per cent more in 2019-20.
Mr Hinds added that schools in the Keighley constituency would gain 2.1 per cent if the national funding formula was fully implemented. Mr Grogan responded by stating: “The Government is talking about cash increases which ignore both inflation and the current rise in pupil numbers.
“This means that the funding per pupil in real terms is set to fall in all Craven-ward schools, on average by £282 from 2015 to 2020, according to the NUT school cuts website. This is a total real-terms cut of £352,251. It is true that in the immediate aftermath of the General Election the Government did inject an additional £1.3 billion over two years into schools, but this merely mitigated the worst of the cuts.