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Monday 12 November at 6.32pm
(repeated Sunday 18 November at 6.31am)

Are Welsh schoolchildren being short-changed, compared with pupils over the border in England?

In tonight's Eye on Wales, professor of education David Reynolds investigates the growing gulf in funding for schools in Wales, compared with England.

From 2% less being spent on education in Wales than England when the Assembly Government was established in 2000, it's grown to nearly 8% in 2006-2007.

This amounts to an average of £350 less being spent on each pupil in Wales, each year, than in England. The most up-to-date statistics are due to be revealed later this year and Professor Reynolds predicts the gap will have widened still further.

Although devolution is widely regarded as bringing positive change to Welsh education - including the abolition of league tables and SATs, and the introduction of new curriculums for very young children and 14 to 19-year-olds, teaching unions voice concerns that local authorities retain increasing amounts of the funding they are awarded by the Assembly Government for education, and possibly divert it into other areas.

However, councils have warned that their funding settlement from the Assembly Government for the coming year - a rise of just 2.2% on last year - is likely to mean public services including education having to tighten their belts still further.

The programme visits a typical Welsh comprehensive and hears from teachers and pupils about how they struggle to make ends meet for new books, equipment, sickness cover and professional development. There is also the poor state of school buildings to consider - a problem across Wales and something which the Assembly has pledged to tackle in the coming years.

Meanwhile, there's a warning from opposition parties in the Assembly that some pupils and teachers living in border areas of Wales, such as Powys and Monmouthshire, are rejecting Welsh schools in favour of English ones.