YOUR MP WRITES (From Worcester News)

YOUR MP WRITES

8:29am Thursday 30th August 2007 in

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Like many parents in the city, I am preparing for the return to school next week. Uniforms have been bought and even the shoes are cleaned ready to go.
Unlike previous MPs, my children go to local state schools. So I have a parental interest, not a political one, in local schools being the best they can be.
The results this summer in
A- levels, GCSEs and SATs, show how well our schools and colleges are doing.
As a parent, I was delighted to hear that in Worcestershire there are now record numbers of teachers and teaching assistants working in local schools.
According to new official figures, the number of teachers in county schools has increased from 3,917 to 4,510 since 1997. The increase of 593 or 15 per cent puts teacher numbers at record levels.
The same is true for teaching assistants and classroom support staff. In 1997, there were 1,339 working in county schools. Now that figure has risen by 188 per cent to 3,850, an extra 2,511 staff.
The increase in staffing at local schools has been paid for by the extra cash from Government. According to figures from the county council, for the average primary school in Worcester, the funding per pupil has risen from £1,367 in 1997 to £3,094 per pupil in 2007. For secondary schools, the increase has been from £1,882 per pupil in 1997 to £3,949 in 2007.
Children across the county are seeing the results of the massive extra investment by the Government. Extra teachers and support staff mean greater individual attention for each child. This helps drive up standards, and we have seen record results in our schools.
But this has not happened by accident. MPs were asked to vote for the extra cash to be spent in our schools. The Government supported this, the Conservatives voted against it. Luckily for local schools, we have a Government that knows how important investment in education is.
I know that locally there is always a demand for more. I support this. I will back more cash for local schools, as I have done since 1997. What I will not do is promise more locally but vote against it in Parliament.
Local parents know how much things have improved since the early 1990s, when Conservative MPs cut school budgets. Those days are gone, but parents like me have not forgotten the betrayal of a generation of local children.