07.04.14
Primary school places ‘crisis’in England – Labour
Labour has accused the government of creating a “crisis” for primary school placements, with many children facing the possibility of not being able to get a place in September.
However, the Department for Education (DfE) has dismissed the claims as “bogus”.
The opposition stated that Freedom of Information responses from 131 local authorities showed that 32 – a quarter of the total – believe that government funding for additional primary places is “insufficient” to meet demand for 2015/16.
But a DfE spokesperson said: “These figures are bogus. They are based on a completely false comparison and would only be true if local authorities had taken no action to create places since 2012/13, despite the huge amounts of money we have given them.
“We are giving councils £5bn to spend on new school places over this Parliament – double the amount allocated by the previous government over an equivalent period.
“This funding has already led to the creation of 260,000 new school places, all of which are in areas where there is a shortage of places. All councils should now have plans in place to meet the need for this September and we will hold to account any that fails to do so.”
But Tristram Hunt MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, responding to figures showing one in four English councils are forecasting a shortage of primary places, said that David Cameron is failing in his most important duty to children in this country: to ensure every child has a place at a good local school.
He defended Labour’s findings and added that the government’s policies are “damaging standards in our schools, with class sizes soaring, more temporary and unsuitable classrooms and children forced to travel further and further to get to school”.
Figures released by the DfE shortly before Christmas revealed that 3,514 schools across England had more pupils than their official capacity last May, but no councils reported having more pupils than places overall.
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