TORFAEN council is to correct the imbalance of spending between its schools by injecting an extra £400,000 into secondary education.

While the council claims to give a greater percentage of its total education budget direct to schools than almost any authority in Wales, it admitted providing more to primary schools over the years.

Now it has announced the extra funding each year to raise standards among its older pupils.

Councillor John Turner, executive member for education, said: "It is high time that secondary schools in Torfaen got a fairer share of resources. We are determined to improve funding for all our schools by bidding for specific initiatives by the National Assembly, Europe and the National Lottery and we have been very successful. Now we want to use the increased funding for secondary schools as an incentive for them to raise standards and improve life chances for our 11 to 18-year-olds."

He added: "Alongside more money is an increased determination to see our secondary schools rising up the ranks of performance and achievement."