HEADTEACHERS and governors from Devon issued a personal invitation this week to Prime Minister Tony Blair to visit the county and see the effects of the unfair funding system on their schools.

Heads, governors and parents presented Mr Blair with examples of how the current system penalises Devon schools when they met him in Downing Street in July.

The delegation, which included heads from Okehampton and Tavistock schools, also handed over a petition signed by almost 60,000 people across the county highlighting the fact that each school child in Devon is worth £195 less a year than the national average.

Mr Blair told campaign spokesman Brian Cunningham, head of Okehampton Primary School, that he would look at all the facts and figures and come back with a detailed response.

So far Mr Blair has not responded, which has come as a disappointment to Mr Cunningham although he said he fully appreciated the Prime Minister had been

occupied with international events.

?However, his own Government is currently consulting on changing the way local councils are funded and that consultation period ended on Monday,? he said.

?Three of the four options would actually make Devon schools worse off.

?We think it is vital that Mr Blair has the opportunity to see for himself how the system currently penalises our schools before he sanctions any changes that could make it worse.?

Mr Cunningham said he was pleased that there was more money coming into education generally, but the cake was still being divided unfairly.

?Mr Blair wants schools to achieve national standards. He wants to ensure that our pupils achieve at the top ? and naturally so do we ? but he is funding us at the bottom.?

Devon?s schools have already joined forces with colleagues from the 39 other worst-funded areas to campaign for fair funding for the county?s children after it was revealed they would be more than £18-million short this year.

The group ? known as f40 ? says that Government proposals to alter the funding formula for education leads to a worsening situation.

The worst option would mean every Devon child being worth £264 less than the national average and the best option would only reduce the deficit from £195 per pupil to £173 per pupil.

Schools in the f40 group want the Government to adopt an Option 5 which would split the money for education more evenly between the LEAs giving a higher figure per head for each child with less money spent on top-up grants for individual areas.

They have been backed by local MPs, including John Burnett, who represents West Devon and Torridge.

Parents, governors and teachers in Devon were urged to write to the Government before the consultation period ended and ask for Option 5 to be implemented.

Mr Cunningham said judging from the letters of support he had received, he felt the response had been very encouraging.

?Parents have really latched onto the injustice of it all,? he said.

?Their children are considered to be worth £195 less than those from other areas and they are not prepared to put up with that.?

He said historically local authorities in London and the South East had been given more Government funding because the cost of living was judged to be higher.

But it cost roughly the same to employ a teacher anywhere in the country because of the national pay scales.

If schools in Devon were brought up to the national average, a secondary school with £1,000 pupils would get an extra £195,000 each year ? enough to pay for around eight teachers.