BURY'S schools have been praised by Education Secretary David Blunkett as he held out the hope of extra cash.

He was responding to local MP David Chaytor during a debate on new cash for education.

Mr Chaytor, Labour MP for Bury North, said the town's schools received very low funding per pupil compared to elsewhere in the country because of the formula used to allocate government cash. He said that consequently Bury struggled to obtain basic materials and called for a reform of the system.

Mr Blunkett accepted there was a case for change but added: "Bury makes excellent provision . It has an excellent local education authority with excellent schools, and it will have come as close as any authority in Britain to eliminating classes of 30 or more by September this year."

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