WE are right in the middle of the schools speech night season.

This is the time of year when headmasters gain the attention, not only of their scholars, but of parents as well as they hand out prizes and report on the progress or otherwise of the school year.

But in East Lancashire this year, the heads' speeches have contained a common theme, almost as though they had all employed the same script writer.

Almost without exception they have complained to the assembled parents about round after round of savage Government cuts in the education budget, which in turn have led to reduced numbers of teachers and increased class sizes.

Only this week Mr John Challoner, headmaster of St Bede's RC High School, Blackburn, urged parents to write to councillors and MPs about the impact the latest proposed three to eight per cent cuts will have on their children.

He asked parents to make the Government aware that they were not prepared to tolerate the current underfunding of state education when the immediate future for increased funding is apparently bleak.

There may have been a certain amount of collusion between East Lancashire headmasters. We know not.

But their combined attack on the lack of investment in education must be worrying for the Government.

And it comes as no surprise that the schools inspectorate, relatively secure in their Government jobs, are now saying that bigger classes do not mean poorer education.

What absolute bunkum. You do not have to be an education expert to know that a teacher faced with handling a class of 35 is going to have far less time dealing with individual needs than a teacher who has a class made up of 25 children.

Every headmaster, teacher and parent knows that.

Our schools are our future.

Most countries in the Western world seem to accept this.

But the Government's record on education is appalling.

After all the waffle and promises trotted out at the last Tory conference there are still teachers struggling to teach children in buildings which should have been condemned 25 years ago.

Others are facing redundancy because of the cuts and yet more are retiring early because they have been reduced to nervous wrecks through attempting to teach oversized classes.

If the cuts continue the inevitable result will be a drop in standards of education.

And no country can afford that in these days of fierce international competition.

Already our education standards are lagging behind those of Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries.

We cannot afford to lose any more ground.

The Government would do well to note the common theme running through the speeches of East Lancashire headmasters.

They have parents' ears and parent power could be a powerful influence at the next General Election.

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