'WE HAVE A RESPONSlBILITY TO SCHOOL OUR CHILDREN'

摘要

When education secretary Michael Gove announced on 5 July last year that he was cancelling 715 school building projects under the Building Schools for the Future programme, it was bad news for communities up and down the country. But few were hit as hard as Barking and Dagenham. This east London council is not only in the top 20 most deprived in the country, it also has the biggest predicted shortfall of pupil places, with immigration and demographic changes causing its birth rate to rocket 58% in the last 10 years. It had been allocated £270m of BSF cash to meet this need through the redevelopment of nine existing secondary schools and the construction of a new one on the site of the 10,000-home Barking Riverside regeneration scheme. But when the axe fell, Barking was one of those that suffered. As Rocky Gill, the borough's education cabinet member, says: "There's just no way a council can replace a capital programme of £270m. It has a huge impact."