MP claims every school in his constituency will get more funds
WITH MANY schools in rural North Yorkshire facing an uncertain future, Richmond MP Rishi Sunak has revealed details of funding plans for every primary and secondary school in his constituency.
In the run-up to the start of the new school year, the Government made a series of ambitious funding pledges for education. The announcements came in the wake of complaints by many head teachers that they were no longer able to afford basics like textbooks.
However, with critics suggesting the three-year, £14bn package might not hold up to scrutiny, Conservative MP Mr Sunak has laid bare the exact per-pupil funding for almost 50 Yorkshire schools, some of them in the county’s remotest communities.
Under the new proposals, every secondary school pupil will receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil next year and every primary school pupil will receive a minimum of £4,000 per pupil by 2021-22.
However, according to the Department for Education figures released by Mr Sunak, across North Yorkshire the average perpupil funding will rise by 4.71 per cent and in his constituency primary schools will receive more than £6,000 per pupil, with secondaries in line for an average of £5,400.
He said: “This settlement means every school will receive an uplift in their funding. Some of those increases are substantial, addressing a long-standing issue about inequality of funding across the country and which particularly affected rural areas.”
The extra money, available from April, has been designed to ensure that per-pupil funding can rise at least in line with inflation and according to Mr Sunak it will deliver promised gains in full for areas which have been historically under-funded.
He added: “This levelling-up of funding will see every school receiving an increase to their perpupil funding at least in line with inflation while those that have been historically under-funded will see the greatest gains.”