Pupil premium dismissed as a 'con'

Andy Burnham has warned that the Government's 'pupil premium' is a 'con'
12 April 2012

Education Secretary Michael Gove has admitted that the Government's "pupil premium" would lead to funding cuts for some schools.

The £2.5 billion pupil premium - a key pledge of the Liberal Democrats' election manifesto - will increase the budgets of schools with a higher proportion of poorer children.

Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham condemned the pupil premium as a "con" and said Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had been "sold a pup" by the Conservatives.

But Mr Gove told BBC1's Politics Show this would mean some schools "will have less", as funding for the premium will be taken from the education budget.

Mr Gove said: "I think there will be some schools who will have less funding. At the moment we're consulting on how the pupil premium, which is the additional £2.5 billion being made available to the poorest students, will be allocated.

"But it depends precisely on whether or not we allow the pupil premium to go to slightly more children or we target it very narrowly on the very poorest."

David Cameron pledged in June that money would would be taken from a number of areas in Whitehall to fund the pupil premium.

He told the Commons: "We will take money from outside the education budget to ensure that the pupil premium is well funded."

But Mr Gove said: "Some of it comes from within the education budget."

He said "quite a bit of it comes from welfare spending", adding: "We've ensured that there is money that comes from welfare which is being spent on pupil premium and without the welfare cuts, we wouldn't be in the position to have a real terms increase in school spending."

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