RUMOURS the government may be about to scrap its free school funding program have prompted fresh calls in Oxford for education to be taken out of political hands.

A source close to Justine Greening was reported in The Times yesterday saying the Education Secretary was debating whether to abandon the Conservative policy in order to boost education budgets by £4bn.

It is not thought the move would affect funding already pledged for new free schools in Oxfordshire, such as the 900-pupil Swan School set to open in Marston by 2019.

But if the pledge to create 610 free schools by 2020 is scrapped, it will be the latest in a string of Tory flip flops over education policy, including the recently abandoned grammar schools plan.

The rumour comes days after the outgoing head of Oxford's Dragon School said the education needed to stop being treated like a 'political football'.

John Baugh, who is leaving the school after 15 years, said schools needed to be taken out of political hands and run independently.

The veteran head also said the government had made a step in the right direction by establishing academies run by independent trusts rather than local authorities.

He said: "What baffles me is why someone can't get a grip on education and say 'this isn't a political football', then you haven't got successive governments coming in and trying to recreate their own past whether it's grammar schools or the three Rs."

Among Mr Baugh's biggest criticisms is the standardised exam system, which he said puts unnecessary stress on pupils and teachers without enhancing their education.

Yesterday, the National Union of Teachers' executive member for Oxfordshire Gawain Little agreed that many elements of the education system, including curriculum and exams, needed to be taken out of political hands.

Mr Little, who teaches at St Ebbes primary school in Grandpont, said: "We don't want the curriculum determined by a group got together by the Department for Education."

But, he added: "There are also elements of policy like funding which are always going to be political and rightly so.

"If people want lower taxes and badly-funded schools they should be able to vote for it."