Bottom of the class

The Audit Commission performance tables showed that in almost every area of education Bradford is well below national averages and sometimes last on the list of metropolitan councils.

The figures revealed the council had:

The lowest spending per primary-age and secondary-age pupils of any of the country's 36 metropolitan councils

The second lowest GCSE pass rate at grades A*-C

The second lowest 11-year-old standards in English, maths and science

One of the slowest rates for processing statements of special educational needs

A higher than average 'number of primary school classes of 30 or more pupils

The city had 71 per cent of under fives in nursery education compared to an average of 74 per cent .

Bradford's education chairman Jim Flood said that while funding per pupil was low in the Audit Commission report, this figure only represented the amount delegated to schools.

Once cash for Section 11 language teachers, school meals, transport, and debt repayment had been taken into account, the whole funding for each child was the highest among the West Yorkshire authorities.

"The trouble with raw figures like these is that it is so easy to misinterpret them," he said. "If you look at our total spending per pupil we are at the top of the West Yorkshire league."

But the Audit Commission said cash for Section 11 funding, school meals, transport and debt repayment had not been taken into account for any of the 36 local authorities.

Bradford Education's own figures reveal that spending per pupil would rise by a further £95 once Section 11 funding had been taken into account.

This would lift Bradford off the bottom of the tables because other authorities do not have the same proportion of children learning English as a second language.

Bradford education's head of policy Francis Marslen-Wilson said that the district's total spending for all children was £2,528, higher than Calderdale (£2,330), Kirklees (£2,365), Leeds (£2,382) and Wakefield (£2,445).

Nationally, Education Secretary David Blunkett said the report showed education services varied widely with significant differences in similar social and economic circumstances.

Bradford Council's Tory opposition education spokesman Dale Smith said: "This report shows that the main reason for under-performance is poor funding. We have got to use the vehicle of the school review to tackle these issues. It is pounds in the classroom that are going to make a difference and spending at the coal face."

Liberal Democrat David Ward said: "We can't have schools losing teachers year in and year out and expect levels of achievement to increase.

"This report indicates that Labour has been starving education in Bradford. We need to give teachers the resources to do the job.

"If this authority had put in specialist teams to raise standards in the poorest performing schools, it would have done twice as much as the school review, which is simply a huge sledgehammer to crack a nut, and it won't even crack the right nuts."

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