HEADTEACHERS in West Devon are urging parents to help their campaign to end 25 years of underfunding in the county's schools.

Parents, governors and teachers are being asked to write letters direct to the Government to lobby for a change in the current funding system.

Forty local education authorities across the country are involved in the F40 campaign, which seeks to bridge the gap between the best funded and the worst funded authorities.

Now headteachers, MPs and local councillors, who handed a 56,000 signature petition to 10 Downing Street in July, are urging parents to help step up the campaign, before the consultation period on proposals for a new grant distribution formula ends on September 30.

The four options proposed by the Government have not been accepted by F40, because they fail to address all the issues of concern.

As a result, the group has put forward a fifth option, which would achieve better and fairer financial settlements for all the currently worst funded authorities.

The option would include a much greater shift of resources into the basic allowance per pupil — and a move away from distribution of funds through additional educational needs.

Currently, the national average funding per school pupil is £3,127, but in Devon it is £2,932 — a gap of £195 per pupil.

As a largely rural county, Devon also faces one of the highest school transport bills in the country, but that is not taken into account under the current funding system.

West Devon MP and Torridge John Burnett, who arranged the Downing Street meeting where the Devon contingent also met Prime Minister Tony Blair, said if the Government was making an allowance for deprivation, it needed to take into account the amount of people who were in receipt of Working Families Tax Credit — not just Income Support.

'In rural areas like Devon there is a great reluctance by people to claim income support and because of this, the deprivation of the area is not always evident,' he said.

'In addition, the Government must take the sparsity element into account and the large cost of school transport — I am astonished that it makes allowance in the formula for transport to primary schools but not secondary schools.'

Mr Burnett said Devon was not asking to be made a special case, but the all-party campaign was about 'fair play'.

'We need everybody to join in and help us try and break the stranglehold which has blighted our county and our children's prospects for more than 25 years,' he said.

Principal of Okehampton College, Chris Powell, said his school would be £330,000 better off each year if it received the average funding per pupil throughout the country, and if transport costs were taken into account.

'That equates to another ten teachers, which would dramatically reduce class sizes — or it could pay for the replacement of computer systems and improve resources. It would make a phenomenal difference,' he said.

'Why should a youngster for example in Brighton, be worth an extra £245 a year when we have all the same pressures in this area as in Sussex?

'Our young people deserve as much help with education as any others.'

He urged parents to write to deputy prime minister John Prescott, education secretary Estelle Morris or school standards secretary David Milliband, saying that they found the existing system of funding unacceptable and requesting Option 5 to be put in place.

All headteachers have received a F40 campaign pack with details of where to write and how letters should be worded.

'The current system of funding has been in place for a very long time and we will not get an opportunity like this again for probably another ten years,' he said.

'It is really important that we make a noise this time, so the Government sits up and takes notice.'

Headteacher of Okehampton Primary School Brian Cunningham reiterated these comments:

'It was fantastic to get the support we did for the petition but we need to go one stage further now and get writing,' he said.

'We are going shoulder to shoulder with 39 other authorities who have found themselves in the same situation as ourselves and Option 5 is what we want.'