PARENTS worried about school funding have been urged to turn it into a major issue at the General Election.

Schools will be left in the dark over proposed changes to the amount of money they will be given by the Government until after the General Election on June 8.

The Department for Education had been due to publish its response to a consultation on a new ‘national funding formula’, which had been heavily criticised by parents and teachers, before the election.

But that has now been delayed, putting plans for the formula to come into effect in 2018 into doubt and leaving schools with the current funding system, under which Oxfordshire is one of the worst-funded areas in England.

Mum-of-one Helen Brockett, from the campaign group Fair Funding for All Schools Oxfordshire, said: “The delay is very disconcerting. As a pressure group we are going to keep working and hold candidates to account and find out what their views are on education funding.

“It gives parents the chance to quiz candidates on their views.

“As a parent it is very upsetting because schools are struggling at the moment, never mind having to wait to find out what the situation will be with funding.”

The new funding formula had been proposed by the Government in order to end the current system where schools in some areas – like Oxfordshire –get thousands less per pupil than in other areas.

It was meant to be introduced by September 2018 but that date is now in doubt due to the delayed consultation response.

Critics of the proposals said that while the county would get more money overall some schools would lose out as cash was redistributed.

Unions warned that the money does not keep up with rising financial pressures and that overall Oxfordshire schools will be £26m worse off by 2019.

The Oxford Academy Headteacher Niall McWilliams said: “There is absolutely no doubt that schools are underfunded.

“Along with the health service, social services and the police, education needs to be the cornerstone of the election.

“People need to stand up for this and they need to push their parliamentary candidates, whether Labour or Conservative or Lib Dem.

“They really need to push them and make this a big deal.

“If people do not vote appropriately they are voting to hinder the life chances of their own children.”

Senior Lib Dem county councillor and education expert Professor John Howson, who will be campaigning for the party’s candidates in the General Election, said he believed education would be a big issue.

He said: “In the next week virtually every voter will know how they will vote on Europe.

“The rest of the election will be on issues like education in a way that it was not in 2010 or 2015.”