Michael Gove's funding cuts put A-levels under threat

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, intends to reduce the annual budget for every sixth-former in a state school by £280 and pass the money to further education colleges, which have been funded less generously for years.

But headteachers warned that the decision would be “disastrous” for state schools, which currently educate 430,000 over-16s in England. Teachers' jobs, courses and student places will be at risk, they said.

The cut, which could come into force next year, is a consequence of a promise to end the disparity between funding for school sixth-forms and colleges, contained in Mr Gove’s education white paper, published this week.

The same document announced that the Coalition was committed to raising the compulsory education leaving age to 18 over the next five years, meaning schools will be expected to teach more sixth-formers than ever.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), warned that the cuts would lead to job losses, larger classes, and less contact time between teachers and students.

The ASCL general secretary, Brian Lightman, said: “This proposal will undoubtedly be of grave concern to parents with students about to enter school sixth forms.

“Making cuts of this size will have disastrous implications for schools," he told the Times Educational Supplement.

“It will also lead to a reduction in the choice of courses available. If you offer fewer courses then students might not be able to do the courses they need to do, and therefore they won’t get the education they need.”

Mr Lightman accepted that schools and colleges needed to be funded more fairly but called for extra resources to be provided to address the inequality, rather than cutting school budgets.

Martyn Coles, principal of the City of London Academy in Bermondsey, said the move could stop schools opening sixth forms.

“I am a firm believer in school sixth forms and this will have a significant impact on them, especially academies which are just building them up,” Mr Coles said.

“I will be lobbying the Government very hard to make sure this proposal does not go through.”

The white paper stated that funding for post-16 education is “inherently unfair, with school sixth-forms being funded on average £280 more per student than general FE colleges and sixth form colleges”. The white paper said: “Our aim is that money is distributed more fairly so that it is the schools most able to make efficiencies which are asked to so do.”

The decision was welcomed college leaders who were glad to see the end of the “unfair” funding system.

Julian Gravat, assistant chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said: “No one is happy to see other people’s funding go down, we obviously would have preferred for us to go up. But we’re now moving in the right direction to ensure equity between colleges and school sixth forms, and we welcome the fact that the white paper acknowledged that the current funding system is inherently unfair.”