Less money is going to children in Bradford schools to pay for their education - because millions of pounds are being spent on repaying building loans and debts, we can reveal.

A significant amount of the education budget is also being spent on section 11 language teachers - money that is spent centrally rather than distributed to schools.

Bradford education chief Jim Flood blamed these high costs on the reason why the district came bottom of the league tables for metropolitan authorities for spending the least amount of money per pupil in schools, as published in yesterday's editions of the Telegraph & Argus.

But Councillor Flood insisted: "If we look at our total spending per pupil we are at the top of the West Yorkshire league."

Almost 40 per cent of Bradford's education budget is held back centrally to pay for section 11, building debt repayments and early retirement among teachers.

Last year this amounted to £41m - a fifth of the authority's overall education budget of £220m.

Of this, nearly £28m went on repaying building loans and £7.3m was spent on section 11.

Taking these figures into account, Bradford's total expenditure per pupil is higher than any of the other West Yorkshire authorities and higher than any of the district's "statistical neighbours".

These neighbours are education authorities that are the nearest comparable areas to Bradford, according to education watchdog Ofsted.

Figures reveal that Bradford is spending more per pupil overall in education, yet less money is finding its way into the classroom than in other authorities.

Overall, Bradford spends £2,528 per pupil, only £1,636 is given to schools (65 per cent). Whereas in Leeds, a total of £2,382 is spent per pupil, but £1,764 goes to the schools (74pc). In Birmingham, £1,913 out of a total of £2,429 (79pc) went directly to schools.

Ian Adam, deputy headteacher at Buttershaw Upper School, said the only real comparison to make was with the amount of spending per pupil in all schools.

He said the section 11 funding was spread disproportionately.

Mr Adam added: "Bradford's finances are worrying and we would hope the school review will help Bradford to address that issue. Despite that, achievement in Bradford is very much on an upwards trend and our school is a good example of that."

About 100 of Bradford's 250 schools, and 23,000 pupils out of the district's school population of 85,000 benefited from section 11.

But he could not understand why Bradford's building repayment costs were so high.

He said: "We have got a very large stock of old buildings and we do have too many to maintain.

"But I am not aware of a large school building programme in Bradford."

Education finance officer Alan Jarvis said large debts were accrued in the past because of Bradford's stock of old buildings and the authority had been successful in getting approval from the Government to borrow more money to deal with it.

It is also highly likely that these debts increased significantly when Bradford became a three-tier authority in the early 1970s and built a string of purpose-built new middle schools.

The authority's head of education policy, Francis Marslen-Wilson, said the school population had also risen dramatically and new school places had to be provided.

He also pointed out that £2.2m was spent last year on premature retirements, compounded by the Council's policy of offering ten-year enhancements to teachers to retire early.

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