Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to a study showing that one in eight schools have no library, said:

“These figures show the consequences of cuts the Tories have imposed on our schools. Even worse, it is clear that the highest price is being paid by those who most need the extra help.

“The schools with the most disadvantaged pupils are already those least likely to have been able to maintain a library. Yet the government has deliberately diverted the limited funding that it has promised away from those schools.

“Labour believes that every child deserves the best start in life, including access to books and the opportunity to read, and our National Education Service will give schools the investment they need to provide it.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

Agnew accused of funding Tory areas at expense of poor https://www.tes.com/news/agnew-accused-funding-tory-areas-expense-poor

According to EPI analysis: Primary schools in which less than five per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals – just one or two pupils in each year group – would see an average increase in per pupil funding of £271, while almost all schools serving the most disadvantaged communities would miss out. Overall, the average pupil eligible for free school meals would attract an additional £56 under this proposal, while the average pupil not eligible for free school meals would attract an additional £116. And there is an interesting side story for secondary schools. Who could forget the noise three years ago at the proposal that one way to address social injustice was to expand academic selection with new grammar schools. Like so much in that time, the proposals were lost to the distraction of Brexit and simple Parliamentary arithmetic. The new Prime Minister may well end up helping grammar schools more than the last. All but 12 of England’s 163 grammar schools would benefit under this proposal; at an average of over £130,000 each to their total budgets.



https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/analysis-the-prime-ministers-promise-to-level-up-school-funding/