Schools and colleges affected by the recent further education funding fiasco can rest easy, according to Kingston Council’s lead member for education, after the Government announced it would be plugging the shortfall in this year’s budget.

Close to £1.5m was slashed from the budgets of post-16 education providers in Kingston in March, after the Government body responsible for funding failed to anticipate the demand for places in September.

Institutions across the borough feared for their financial futures, having already accepted extra pupils for 2009/10, and looked to be facing packed classes and overworked teachers to cope with the shortfall.

But Alistair Darling announced an extra £251m investment for the coming year to cover the additional 54,000 students, with £404m to follow in 2010/11.

Council education executive member Councillor Patricia Bamford said she had been outraged at the damage which would be done to post-16 education in the borough before the budget announcement, calling it a “nightmare scenario”.

She said: “I am delighted the chancellor’s decision will mean that every 16 and 17 year old expected to start further education in September will now have their study properly funded.”

But Kingston and Surbiton MP Edward Davey was more wary of the chancellor’s announcement, and saidhe would prefer to wait until schools and colleges received the money before celebrating.

He said: “This looks like good news, but until schools get the actual final budget allocated to them, we can’t be sure.

“They have chopped and changed so much and with this Government there’s so much spin, you increasingly wait until the money hits the bank account before you are sure of anything.”

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