Oxfordshire has been named and shamed by the Government for underspending on schools by more than £6m, writes Matt Childe.

A new league table puts Oxfordshire second only behind Bradford on a list of areas where Government spending levels for education are not being met.

Ministers claim that in 1998/99 the county council should have spent £6.3m more than it did on education - but the cash was diverted to other services instead. The money is the equivalent of an extra teacher for 250 of the Oxfordshire's 300 schools.

Education Secretary David Blunkett has written to the local authority demanding that it pass on cash to education in the future.

The league table from the Department for Education and Employment lists the education budgets of 12 offending local authorities.

In Oxfordshire, the standard spending assessment - the amount the Government expects councils to spend on education - was £207.9m. But ministers say that the council spent only £201.6m of its overall budget on education.

Council officials have hit back by saying that they were forced to divert cash to other services to prevent making devastating cuts elsewhere.

Roy Smith, deputy chief education officer for Oxfordshire, said the Government figures failed to take account of £1.2m spent on shared sports facilities for schools last year.

Story date: Saturday 10 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.