Part-time schooling plan

A council is considering part-time education for pupils to deal with a funding crisis in its schools. Bradford council in West Yorkshire is looking at the legal implications of cutting class sizes by splitting them and teaching them at different times.

Pupils who were not being taught could then have the option of going home, bringing serious repercussions for working parents. The idea has been proposed as a way to deal with a pounds 1.2m cut in Bradford's education budget. The city already needs pounds 48m to bring its crumbling schools up to standard.

John Ryan, chairman of Bradford's education committee, said: "It would be drastic to have part-time pupils in our schools, but it might be necessary to look at it if the Government's national under- funding of education continues.

"Obviously, it would have to be done through widespread consultation with parents and governors, who would have to be assured that their children are somehow going to be getting their full entitlement to the national curriculum."