Nick Clegg announced a £7 billion "pupil premium" for children from poorer backgrounds yesterday, intended to give poor children – typically those eligible for free school meals – access to the best nurseries, schools and universities. It will pay for an additional 15 hours of free childcare for two-year-olds and give state schools some £2,000 more to educate children from low-income families. In addition, universities could be paid extra for awarding places to the most deprived teenagers. The announcement was greeted with caution by school leaders, who feared the additional funding may be supplied by slashing other areas of the £35bn schools budget. |
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