CITY’S SCHOOLS TO GET £7.6M CASH BOOST
CITY schools are set for a cash boost of more than £7.6m to help tackle the attainment gap i n Glasgow.
A leading child poverty campaigner has stressed the importance of continuing the fight to close the gap across Glasgow.
CITY schools are set for a cash boost of more than £7.6m to help tackle the attainment gap in Glasgow over the next school year.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced across Scotland are set to receive more than £45m next year.
The funding will be used to target the country’s most deprived children, with nine local authorities including Glasgow and another 72 individual schools set to benefit in total.
Mr Swinney said: “This announcement ensures local authorities and individual schools where the need is greatest have substantial additional funding for the coming year to tailor their plans based on their own circumstances.
“Improving the education and life chances of our children and young people is the defining mission of this government.
“This work, along with the introduction of Pupil Equity Funding, forms the backbone of our focus to target resources where they are needed the most whilst also empowering schools to ultimately improve the life chances of all of children and young people in Scotland.”
On top of this £7.6m in the city, it was announced earlier this year that Glasgow schools will also receive £21.6m in Pupil Equity Funding in the upcoming school year.
Councillor Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills & Early Years said: “The additional money announced today will help continue the great work in Glasgow to close the attainment gap and help all our children and young people reach their full potential.”
This latest boost in funding has been made available through the Scottish Attainment Challenge with the aim of using educational initiatives and projects to target children in Scotland’s most deprived areas.
The government has committed to providing £750m to the schools over the next four years to improve improve performance in literacy and numeracy.
A leading child poverty campaign- er has stressed the importance of continuing the fight to close the attainment gap across Glasgow.
John Dickie, Director of Child Poverty action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said: “With one in three of Glasgow’s children growing up in poverty, ongoing investment to support schools close the attainment gap is vital.
“To make more progress in the attainment gap it is important that schools continue to focus on reducing the financial pressures school imposes on low income families.”
However, the funding from Holyrood has come under criticism from Scottish Conservatives, who fear some children will be left behind.
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: “Whilst it is a welcome move in tackling the attainment gap, it falls short of addressing the gap that exists across the whole of Scotland.
“This is worrying, as it appears that a postcode lottery problem is emerging, and deprived children will be missing out.”
The plans also came under fire from the Scottish Greens, who say that the funding will not reverse damage already done.
The party’s education spokesman, Ross Greer, said: “It would be petty not to welcome extra funding for our schools but what’s announced does not come close to reversing the decade of cuts to teachers, support staff and resources we’ve seen under the SNP at Holyrood and the Tories at Westminster. Our schools need a huge cash injection just to recover the four thousand teaching posts lost in the lifetime of this government.”