THE frustration of parents and educationalists that has been building up regarding the Worcestershire schools funding settlement is unlikely to have been defused by the half-hearted "sorry" from Charles Clarke yesterday.

More likely it will fuel the resentment of many to what appears to be a total lack of understanding at the top level of the problems faced at the sharp end of education - in the classroom.

And it is highly unlikely that teachers and heads will be jumping for joy as they face a mounting debt crisis in their own schools and look forward to spending cuts and redundancies.

"We need more resources at just about every level of education... I regret the funding problems that arose in far too many of our schools this year," said the Minister in the what could be easily described as the understatement of the year.

It is a great pity that he did not get his facts right in the first place - he would not then have had to apologise for a policy he implemented to cause the problems in the first place.

In another education story in the Evening News today, it is revealed that Worcestershire is looking forward to the results of an Ofsted audit that will rate the authority as being in the top 10 of the UK - a big vote of confidence in the job being done at county level for the Worcestershire schools.

It is a pity that the verdict on the Government's management is likely to be closer to that of a confidence trick.

Come on Mr Clarke. Do us all a favour - put the rhetoric away and get out your chequebook.