EDUCATION secretary Charles Clarke has a reputation as a bit of a bruiser in political terms. But he will have to do better than bluster his way through, when trying to explain away the funding crisis afflicting schools later today (Friday).

There is a serious credibility gap opening up between assurances from the Cabinet, from the Prime Minister down, that more money than ever before has been poured into education, and head teachers who find themselves cutting back on staff and expansion plans because of a shortage of cash.

Investigations by this newspaper demonstrate that this is no remote political row confined to the corridors of power in Whitehall.

It is affecting the education of the majority of pupils in South Lakeland and, therefore, the prospects of our next generation, despite the best efforts of the schools to minimise the effects.

Mr Clarke and others have tried to lay the blame at the doors of local government, indicating that there must be some sort of red tape tangle at county halls which is holding up the flow of money from the exchequer earmarked for the classroom. This is denied in Cumbria.

The explanation from Chris Clark, head teacher at Queen Elizabeth School, Kirkby Lonsdale, is more prosaic.

It is rather that other Government actions have forced up wider staffing costs to such an extent that the increased allocation of cash has been more than absorbed. National Insurance costs, pension contributions and pay rises between them come to more than the extra amount handed out.

QES itself has had to find at least £150,000 to offset the shortfall. Mr Clark is backed up across the county. There is a similar story at Kirkbie Kendal School, where plans to increase teacher support may have to be scaled down.

The Lakes School depressingly reports being pushed into debt just at the time it should be confidently pushing ahead following a marvellous recovery from special measures. Coniston's John Ruskin School is struggling to stand still when it was planning on expansion.

Primary schools are just as badly affected, with many having to review staffing plans. It can be assumed this means downwards.

What is so hurtful to the heads is the very spin' which raised everyone's expectations in the first place.

With the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, crowing at budget time about an extra £12.8 billion going into education, it is doubly difficult to have to face stringent cut-backs.

This trend of making grand promises in London, while engineering the way money is distributed to the detriment of those who have to deliver policy, will be familiar to many other services, including health and local councils.

Let's hope that Mr Clarke does more than try to hide behind a smokescreen of blaming the committed professionals at the sharp end of education, in his explanation today. That excuse is wearing thin.

End of an era

IN TYPICAL South Lakeland style the few remaining workers at K Shoes have put across a phlegmatic response to the ending of shoe manufacturing in Kendal. Having dealt with the hammer blow of the announcement, most of the workers have got on with supplying the excellent service that has always been their trademark as workers.

Now they want to move on and get on with their lives.

But that should not mean all of us, who have to live and work in this area, should underestimate the significance of today's events. It marks another watershed in the switch from a genuine mixed economy to one over-dependent on service industries.

For a town so associated with the manufacture of shoes, it is truly the end of an era.

May 2, 2003 13:00