Funding 'will remain for specialist teaching'

June 01 2010

Funding for specialist one-to-one teaching to help struggling pupils will remain, schools minister Nick Gibb has said.

Responding to claims made by Polly Toynbee on the Guardian's Comment is Free website, Mr Gibb said that programmes that provide extra support in English and maths through one-to-one teaching will remain for the current year.

Ms Toynbee suggested that the tuition schemes that help children the most are being axed, but Nick Gibb said she is "wrong to claim we are cutting support for children who are falling behind".

He said that some £256 million is being spent over 2010-11 to help seven to 16-year-olds most in need of extra support for English or maths, while £89 million is being spent on the Every Child schemes for the coming year to help five to eight-year-olds make improvements in these key subjects.

Nonetheless, there will be difficult decisions to make in the future, he said, but argued that the government will strike a balance between the action needed to manage public finances and that needed to protect education.

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