THE ‘historic inequalities’ of the school funding system which has resulted in the chronic underfunding of schools in the county for decades has been brought to an end, Droitwich’s MP has claimed.
It follows the publishing of the Government’s new National Funding Formula last week which will see school’s in Worcestershire receive a much needed funding boost.
For decades the county’s schools have been underfunded and local headteachers have been lobbying the Government to overhaul the funding system to make sure their schools get a fairer amount of funding.
Currently there is nearly a £1,000 funding gap per pupil per year between schools in Worcestershire and schools in Birmingham.
However, this historic ‘inequality’ is set to be brought to an end when the new funding formula comes into force next year.
From 2018/19, all schools across the country will receive funding rises of at least 0.5 per cent in 2018/19 and one per cent in 2019/20.
Every secondary school will also be guaranteed £4,800 per pupil funding by 2019/20 and every primary school guaranteed £3,500 per pupil by the same year.
In Worcestershire schools will see their budget’s increase by an average of 3.5 per cent. Some schools could even see budget rises of nearly 25 per cent.
More than £1.5million of additional funding is also set to benefit the county’s schools. This cash is coming from the Department of Education’s fund which was set up to directly target some of the most remote and underfunded schools.
Mr Huddleston has welcomed the announcement and said he was glad the underfunding of the schools had been ‘corrected’.
“I am delighted that every state funded school in my constituency will benefit from the new funding formula and have an increased budget,” he said. “This is something I have been campaigning on since first being elected – working alongside many local school heads, teachers and parents.
“I am pleased that historic inequalities in school funding are going to be corrected.
“I’m glad that the Secretary of State clearly recognises that targeting funding towards rural schools is one of the essential elements of tackling this unfair funding system.
“Schools in my constituency will see an average rise of 3.5 per cent in their budgets totalling £1,500,000, something that will have a very real impact on the quality of education delivered to local children.”
