DEVON’S schools are urging the Government to speed up fair funding for the county’s children.

Every child in a Devon school is worth £270 less than they would be if the county was funded at the national average.

That is in spite of reforms that were introduced by the former Education Secretary Michael Gove that brought an extra £16 million into Devon schools this year.

Now the Devon Education Forum, which represents heads, governors and parents, is writing to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and county MPs urging the Government to complete the funding reforms.

Mr Gove’s reforms brought extra cash into Devon’s schools but they are still millions of pounds short of what they would receive if every pupil was funded at the national average.

Devon County Council’s Cabinet member for schools, James McInnes, has also written to all the county’s MPs urging them to back the fair funding campaign and to attend a special briefing at the House of Commons next Tuesday by the national campaign group, f40 (July 14 at 11am in Committee Room 6 at the House of Commons).

Mr McInnes said: “There is no justification for disparities on the current scale when all schools are judged against national criteria – testing, inspection and league tables – and staff are paid under national pay and conditions of service.

“We have been campaigning for fair funding for Devon’s schools for years.

“We had no action for 13 years.

“To his great credit, Michael Gove took action in the first term of this Government but his reforms are only partly in place.

“Schools in Devon have benefitted in this financial year from the first stages of the reforms. But we need Nicky Morgan to see them through.

“Last summer Devon’s schools surpassed the national average in their results for all public tests and exams from the Early Years through to GCSEs.

“They did that with grossly unfair funding. The disparity has now been reduced to £270 a head with the additional Gove funding.

“But just imagine what our schools could achieve if they had the cash to employ the same amount of teachers and teaching assistants and buy the same amount of resources as their counterparts in other highly funded areas of the country.”