Education Secretary Ruth Kelly today welcomed the Budget saying it would help transform the way pupils are taught in classrooms up and down the country and play a key role in helping close the nation's skills gap.
Ruth Kelly said:
"This is a fantastic Budget for standards in schools, for pupils and for the skills of our workforce.
"This huge new resource will help revolutionise classroom teaching to the benefit of thousands of pupils. It will enable us to intensify and do more of the things that work well in raising achievement like small group tuition and one-to-one support - particularly in English and maths. This investment will provide the means and the Gilbert Review on teaching and learning will provide the framework. Combined with investment already announced, more than £1 billion is now going into personalised learning.
"The new money for capital builds on the record investment in school buildings, transforming the learning environments of our young people after decades of neglect.
"This is a good day for science in schools with significant extra resources to step up our efforts to promote learning and recruit the staff we need in this subject. Alongside more money to promote Further Education for women and a new right to education for all young people up to 25-years-old, it is clear this is a budget with schools standards and the future competitiveness of the UK at its heart."
The following was included today in the Budget:-
Schools, children and families
Personalised Learning: £220m in 2006-07, and £365m in 2007-08, to be paid direct to schools to help them to provide greater personalisation of learning in and beyond the school day, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This increase is on top of funding for personalisation in the Dedicated Schools Grant of £220m in 2006-07, rising to £565m in 2007-08, announced last year; so that in 2007-08, schools will receive a total of £930m to deliver tailored support to meet children's particular needs and interests.
Schools Capital: Further capital investment in school buildings and ICT, increasing by £1.6 billion to £8.035 billion by 2010-11.
This new investment is on top of funding allocated to schools capital projects of £5.879 billion in 2006-07 and £6.435 billion in 2007-08. It builds on the Government's existing long-term commitment to transform buildings and ICT and provide 21st-Century facilities for pupils across the country.
School Science: £18 million to support teaching and learning in school science, £9 million in 2006-07 and £9 million in 2007-08. This will be combined with funding already from existing DfES resources to create a £30.5 million package over the next two years to support achievement of the 10 year Science Framework.
This investment will help us to increase the number of science teachers as well as the number of young people taking physics, chemistry and mathematics A-levels, and getting the top grades in science GCSEs.
Enterprise Education: confirming that £2 million announced at the PBR will be used to create 23 enterprise summer school pathfinders to be delivered by Young Enterprise to 1000 pupils across the UK in summer 2006. The summer schools will help young people build a range of key skills, develop stronger links between business and schools and give pupils and students a better understanding of their future role and responsibility in the economy.
ICT: £10 million (£5m in 2006-07 and £5m in 2007-08) for ICT to ensure access to the internet for the most disadvantaged secondary school pupils. The investment will ensure that pupils benefiting from the home computer scheme announced in Budget 2005 have access to the internet.
Youth Opportunities: £2million for the Youth Opportunities Challenge Fund. Through this competition we can recognise the achievement of young people and build on what they've achieved through the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds. This builds on the £115m already allocated over 2 years for the YOF/YCF - ensuring young people are at the heart of the decision making process to ensure they receive the services they want and will use.
Capital grants: £8.4 million of new capital grants in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 to help small and medium sized employers establish workplace nurseries. This will help make life easier for working parents and their children, and benefit employers who will find it easier to attract and retain staff.
Media projects: £3 million in both 2006-07 and 2007-08 to help young people to participate in media related activity and to set up their own media projects such as local community radio. This will help them to acquire both media related skills and to develop broader skills, with a focus on strengthening local communities.
Further Education, Higher Education and Skills
New learners: £25million will be provided to fund new learner entitlements for all 19-25 year olds studying advance level courses from 2007/8. This will fund a package of support for 19-25 year olds, to tackle the key Level 3 skills gap and to provide a seamless transition from the 14-19 phase through to 25 for those young adults who have not achieved Level 2 or Level 3 qualifications by 19.
Adult learning: £11m will be available to allow the roll-out of the Adult Learning Grant to be brought forward to the 2007/08 academic year, providing maintenance payments to adult learners on low incomes.
Women and skills: A further £40million package will be provided in response to the employment issues faced by low-skilled women, with a focus on skills training and targeted career advice.
HE partnerships: £4million will be allocated over two years (2006-2008) focused on building Higher Education partnerships with India, Russia and South Africa. There is a growing need for greater international links in education. A key component is the development of sustainable educational partnerships between UK universities and colleges and other countries.
