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Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Graham Stuart (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 24 June 2013 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Rural Schools (Funding)

Question

Last week, the chief inspector of schools said that Ofsted’s report on unseen children painted

“a striking new picture of disadvantage and educational underachievement”.

In his speech, he said that we needed new policies and approaches to deal with underachievement in rural and coastal areas. If those policies are to succeed, they will need to be financed. Will the Minister commit today to a redistribution to rural areas, so that allocations are fairer and more equal?

Answer

We are committed to introducing a fairer national funding formula, and we hope to be able to say more about that once we are clear about the spending review announcements later this week. We also intend to ensure, through Ofsted and the accountability measures we publish, that schools in rural, coastal and other areas that may have small proportions of young people on free school meals or entitled to the pupil premium are still under intense pressure to narrow these gaps, which are as unacceptable in rural and coastal areas as they are in our inner cities.

Secondary information

Type
Oral question
Reference
565 c4 
Session
2013-14
Oral question type
Supplementary
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Finance Schools Rural areas
Link
View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk