SCHOOLS in Buckinghamshire receive funding below set Government targets for education, claim local headteachers.

And, they add, less is spent by the county county on each pupil than other authorities spend.

The Wycombe and District Local Association of the National Association of Headteachers claims the county council is giving five per cent less than the national average of the Educational Standard Spending Assessment - a grant given by Government to be passed on to schools.

Association secretary Peter Soutar also claims the county council was spending less on pupils compared with other local authorities.

Mr Soutar, headteacher of High Wycombe's Ibstone CE First School, said in a letter: 'The authority delegates 74.9 per cent of the Educational Standard Spending Assessment to schools, through individual school budgets and devolved Standards Fund. The national average is 80.6 per cent.'

He added: 'This authority retains centrally 20.2 per cent of the local schools budget against the national average of 16.1 per cent. The average funding in primary schools is £1,620 per pupil, as against a national average of £1,862. For secondary schools, the average funding is £2,203 against a national average of £2,555.'

Roger Russell, the council's head of corporate communications, said the county council was meeting 2000/2001 budget targets for the service set by the Department for Education and Employment.

Quoting officially recognised DfEE figures, he said the county delegates 80.5 per cent of funding to schools - higher than the Government's 80 per cent target.

He said the individual schools budget per pupil in Bucks is £2,143 compared with the national average of £2,261.

'The reason why the figure per pupil is £118 less in Bucks is largely because of the high costs of home-to-school transport and special educational needs.'