 A PETITION calling on the Government to introduce fairer funding for Devon’s schools has been presented to 10 Downing Street.
Campaign organiser Mel Stride, accompanied by Angela Browning MP, handed in the more than 700 signature-strong petition to Number 10 on Thursday, March 4th.
The petition was launched by Mel last autumn in response to Devon’s school pupils being some of the worst funded nationwide.
Mel and his team visited a number of towns and villages across the new Central Devon constituency – including Ashburton, Crediton, Okehampton and Bovey Tracey - offering parents the opportunity to add their weight and support to the campaign.
Mel also wrote to every school across the constituency highlighting the issue, and raising the possibility of collecting signatures from parents. As a result signatures were raised at several school gates including Hayward’s Primary in Crediton, Bradninch Primary and Kennford Primary.
Having collated the results, Mel travelled to London to hand over the petition to Number 10.
Speaking after presenting the petition Mel, the Conservative Prospective MP for Central Devon said: “Along with a loving family, a good education is one of the greatest gifts that a child can receive but too many of our children are currently being failed by our education system.
“In Devon we are quite unfairly far too far down the funding league table - despite the fact that our local schools have particularly high costs associated with rural travel, teacher recruitment and, in many cases, small school sizes.
“I am calling on the Government to urgently revisit the central government funding formula.”
The current Government allocations of funding per pupil ranks Devon as 148th out of 151Education Authorities in the country – with only Leicestershire, South Gloucestershire and Herefordshire more poorly funded.
The figures mean that, as the new school year started in September, local schools are receiving £3,843 per pupil which equates to:-
· £659 less per pupil than Bristol
· £3,655 less per pupil than the London Borough of the City of London.
In Central Devon, and based on pupil figures on September 1st, the funding would mean, for example, Hayward’s Primary Schoolreceiving around £169,000 more to spend on teachers, assistants, resources and equipment if it was located in Bristol.
4th March 2010 | 
