schools cash

EDUCATION, education, education was the politicians' cry and today's news that Lancashire is getting £41million worth of cash for new school building projects is an all-too-rare piece of good news.

More than £5million of the money is to go into East Lancashire where 20 schools have been told they can begin construction projects.

The two year package will mean new buildings at schools across Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale.

As well as providing new libraries, halls and upgrading laboratories, the money will also replace mobile classrooms which too often are installed as temporary measures - and end up remaining in place for years.

In Blackburn with Darwen, which is of course outside the county council's control, a further £14million has been awarded to rebuild St Wilfrid's High School and another £6million for a new primary school at Ewood.

To a public used to every large building frame becoming a superstore or warehouse, it is a joy to see so much construction time and energy being put into transforming an empty site like that of the new St Wilfrid's complex.

This and the other schemes will hopefully hasten the day when our children will no longer have to endure dark, forbidding Victorian corridors or sit shivering in flimsy portable buildings.

Once modern premises are in place, the focus can be put on giving all our youngsters similarly modern resources like well-stocked libraries and IT facilities.

All pupils are entitled to learn at schools where there is an equality of equipment. If those in deprived areas have to study in deprived schools, generation after generation will continue to suffer.

But with money like we see announced today, there is new hope for our young and the prospect of improved morale for the all-important teaching profession too.