Nearly One In Ten Hampshire Schools Set To Run Deficits As Cash Crisis Bites

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 1st Sep 2003

Sharp cuts in schools spending are merely being put off by a run-up in deficits in nearly one in ten Hampshire schools, according to Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne.

Commenting on today's Guardian survey of the schools cash crisis, which found that up to 50 Hampshire schools out of 542 are setting deficits to deal with cash shortages, Mr Huhne said that a deficit was merely a way of deferring trouble. 'This is not a long run solution' he said.

'The survey finds that Hampshire schools have so far avoided making an unusual number of staff redundant by running up deficits. But those deficits will simply mean deeper cuts in future years unless the Government or the county council comes up with more cash.

'That is a sensible policy only if we can persuade the Department of Education to release some of its £1 billion underspend - and soon' says Mr Huhne. 'It is extraordinary that the Government has got its spending into such a mess when the Prime Minister himself said that his priority in government was 'education, education and education'.

Mr Huhne said that he was particularly worried that the national schools crisis - which is being met in some areas by wholesale staff cuts - is likely to hit language teaching particularly hard.

'We are already appalling at learning foreign languages in Britain, and the first indications are that hard-pressed head teachers see foreign languages as a soft target for budget cuts'.

'Planned improvements in teachers and classroom assistants and the introduction of the new 14 to 19 curriculum are bound to be delayed as schools revert back to larger classes and a more restrictive curriculum.

'Given that the reform of secondary education was meant to be the keystone of a second Labour government, we can now see how its managerial ineptitude is failing its objectives.

'The schools cash crisis is another example, along with the botched introduction of family tax credit, of the Government failing to devote the attention to detail that is necessary to make its policies work' said Mr Huhne.

Ends

Note to editors: The Hampshire county council response to the Guardian schools survey can be found at:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,10281,1018832,00.html

and the general results of the survey at

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,1033242,00.html