PRESS RELEASE

29 April 2003

EDUCATION IN CROYDON FACES DUMBING DOWN SAYS OTTAWAY

Commenting after Tuesday's special council debate on Croydon's education funding, Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South said:-

"The striking feature of the debate was the questions posed by the Conservative councillors and the lack of answers from Labour."

"Unless there is more funding from central government, cuts in Croydon's schools are inevitable. Less money means cuts to teacher numbers, less experienced teachers and larger class sizes. It is high time someone on Croydon Council faced up to this and drew up plans to cope with this crisis."

"The Government has raised educational expectations to a level they can't sustain. They have marched us up to the top of the hill - now they have got to march us down again."

Ends.

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