THE government’s pledge of £4.6 billion for schools does nothing to reverse “a decade of real-terms cuts,” teachers and school leaders warned today,

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said his school funding policy was practical rather than ideological, as he rejected calls to remove a VAT exemption on independent school fees to increase core funding.

But the pledge will not end the “funding crisis gripping our schools and colleges,” according to teachers’ union NASUWT general secretary Dr Patrick Roach.