EDUCATION bosses are today are hopeful that Southampton will receive some of the billions of pounds set aside for school rebuilding by the Government today.
Chancellor George Osborne, in his Commons statement on the Spending Review, defended the decision to axe the city's "hopelessly inefficient" school rebuilding programme earlier this year and said £15.8bn would still be spent "to maintain the school estate and rebuild and refurbish 600 schools".
A Department for Education spokeswoman said a decision on which schools would benefit from the capital investment would not be made until a review of the previous Labour government's Building Schools for the Future programme was published at the end of the year.However, she added that the schools "most at need" would be prioritised, suggesting that only the most dilapidated would be targeted for investment.
Earlier this year the coalition Government axed Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme which council leaders expected would pay for a £200m rebuild more than half of Southampton's secondary schools.
The cash would have created modern facilities for thousands of youngsters, replacing crumbling and outdated buildings with brand new, state-of-the-art schools.
Five city secondaries were set to be completely rebuilt or remodelled and new IT facilities provided at three more.
Paul Holmes, cabinet member for Children's Services on Southampton City Council, said: "After missing out on the Building Schools for the Future funding earlier this year I would hope that Southampton would be high on the list of beneficiaries of this funding announced today and we will certainly be looking at this in more detail."
Southampton Itchen MP John Denham and Chris Kelly, headteacher of Chamberlayne College for the Arts, will on Friday send Education Secretary Michael Gove a petition of parents demanding investment in the city's schools.
Mr Denham, who helped collect the signatures, said: "The response to our campaign for investment in Southampton's schools has been overwhelming.
"Everybody wants the best for their children, which is why there was so much anger when the coalition cruelly cut our Building Schools for the Future programme."
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