Lib Dems target failing children

11.30.33am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 20th Sep 2006

Schools should be given cash incentives to take under-performing children, says Lib Dem shadow education secretary Sarah Teather. Ms Teather told the Lib Dem conference that children's school prospects depend too much on what their parents earn. She wants more funds targeted at children who underachieve, rather than just focusing money on deprived areas. The "pupil premium" could encourage good schools to take on challenging children rather than leaving them to go to "sink schools".

Ms Teather accused ministers of failing those most in need of the opportunities from education. "Despite the plethora of rhetoric about an opportunity society, the best predictor of how well you will do in school is your parents' income," she said."The young people who left school this summer with few or no qualifications, and with no more hope than their parents had, were the same children posed with while electioneering." Ms Teather said league tables encourage schools to admit successful children rather than low performers. "If a school knows it will get extra money if they take these children then there is an incentive to take them rather than a disincentive."