Schools bonus scheme abandoned

The government has announced the end of a controversial scheme offering staff bonuses if their schools perform well after ministers admitted that there is no evidence that it has improved performance.

Despite strong opposition from the teaching unions, the school achievement awards scheme was launched in 2001 and has since paid out £180 million to schools that have either made significant improvements or are high-performing, in terms of exam and test results.

Around 13,800 schools have received funding - the average award was £25,700 for secondary schools and £5,700 for primaries - to use to pay staff non-consolidated pay bonuses.

School standards minister, David Milliband, said that a shift of money into school achievement awards is not justified, after an official evaluation study showed that there is "no hard evidence about the scheme's continuing impact on teaching and learning, and school improvement". He said that the priority for funding is school budgets.

Although teaching unions welcomed the end of the scheme, they said that it revealed the extent of the schools funding crisis.