EDUCATION bosses have criticised Government plans for specialist schools as divisive and indefensible.

They fear that Bury's prized "family of schools" will break up, as some scramble to win the financial jackpot that comes with such status.

And Labour and Lib Dem members were also scathing about proposals which will allow schools to select ten per cent of their pupils.

About half of Bury's secondary schools are looking at making bids next year to become specialist schools. These could be in subjects such as technology, language, arts, sports, science, engineering, business and enterprise.

Successful schools will receive an extra £600,000 over four years. To qualify, they have to raise £50,000 in private sponsorship.

But the plans were fiercely criticised by Councillor Steve Perkins, executive member for lifelong learning. "There's no ambiguity. The reason schools are going for this is finance," he told members at Wednesday's (Oct 3) executive committee.

"We need finance for all our schools, not just for some of them. I cannot for the life of me see what raising money from firms has to do with education. And I do not at all like selection of pupils."

However, Coun Perkins said the council had to be practical and help schools which wanted specialist status achieve it, in a way that would allow all schools to apply on an equal basis.

The council also agreed to support bids for financial support to potential national, regional and local sponsors.

"The aim of our proposals is to try to minimise the damage," he said. "We are prepared to go along with it because we need the money."

Tory councillor Roy Walker said he supported choice and variety in education, but not at the expense of other schools.

"If we are going to have diversity, some selection, that's fine, but we should apply the same amount of funding to schools that don't.

"I am worried about schools having to raise money on their own. This is a small town with not many large employers."