Schools building - a wasted opportunity

12.53.41pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 16th Jun 2009

New school building should be based on improving educational achievement.

Cllr David Ward , the Lib Dem spokesperson on education has condemned as 'a wasted opportunity' the Executive plans for the last phase of school rebuilding.'

The Executive is set to approve refurbishment and new building for thirteen secondary schools in the district and two special schools.

Cllr Ward said,

" We fully support the plans for the special schools - we have been insisting for years that the money for these should be in the council budget.

We do not support the plans for the secondary schools because they do not represent value for money and do not target the available money at the areas of greatest need . Education in Bradford has improved but it has not improved fast enough and there can be no justification for preferential levels of funding to areas already served by high achieving schools .

Where was the demand from those responsible for leading education in Bradford that raising educational achievement was given more weight than all the other criteria when the decision was made about which schools should be rebuilt and which ones should be refurbished ?

The Executive is also planning to delegate the responsibility for developing the project to a handful of officers and the portfolio holder with no oversight whatsoever by other Councillors, Governors or parents. It will all happen behind closed doors.

This is very bad news for education and a wasted opportunity to improve educational achievement across Bradford District ."