Richmond's schoolchildren will bear the brunt of £2.3 million worth of cuts to the council's education budget.

The local education authority announced drastic cuts to its 1999/2000 budget this week as part of the borough's £8.4 million spending squeeze.

According to figures discussed by Richmond's education committee on Tuesday, school budgets will receive a two per cent increase- instead of three per cent as initially planned which should save up to £1 million.

Elsewhere, £385,000 savings on the LEA's central costs will lead to six job losses within the council's education department.

And almost £1 million will be axed from the LEA's discretionary budgets.

Cutbacks will hit adult education, the youth service and school inspectors who play a vital role in monitoring the borough's teaching standards

Chief education officer Vincent McDonnell said it will be up to individual schools to decide how they will make cuts.

"They will need to make use of money they have saved on previous school budgets.

"The council has been very open with the schools on the cuts. What we have tried to do is to balance out the financial responsibilities between the schools and the LEA.

"The LEA's new agenda is to advise schools. LEAs don't run schools anymore, our policy is to intervene when necessary."

The budget cuts come at a difficult time for schools faced with the pressure of reducing primary class sizes to 30 pupils and financing teacher pay rises announced on Tuesday.

Teachers will receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise from April with further increases depending on their pupils' performance.

Head teachers could gain up to 9.5 per cent in the new deal which could see some secondary heads reach £70.000 a year.

The differential was attacked by classroom unions but the government hopes these pay incentives will make teaching more attractive.

Education committee chairman Councillor David Cornwell stressed the council's planned budget savings will not affect Ofsted's new guidelines on class size reduction.

He said: "Although it is true that teacher pay rises will increase pressure on schools to find additional money, the government will be injecting fresh money into schools through separate funding from the education budget."

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