SCHOOL inspectors in York and North Yorkshire will be sympathetic to those hit by the funding crisis, according to the Chief Inspector of Schools, David Bell.

Mr Bell was addressing North Yorkshire head teachers at the North Yorkshire LEA Secondary Heads Conference at Skelton today.

He said inspectors would not be able to make excuses for schools facing problems because of funding cuts and would have to report on what they found, but would be sympathetic.

He said: "They have to inspect what they find, but they will be alerted to the picture. We are not unsympathetic about that.

"We have to inspect on the quality of education as we find it, but the schools will highlight how the standards have been affected."

Mr Bell said schools in both York and North Yorkshire were above the national average, but faced many of the same problems other schools faced.

He said: "In areas like York and North Yorkshire there are generally reasonable standards but there are instances of young people that fall out of education.

"They are generally above the national average both LEA's do well because and we know this as they were both inspected recently."

"There have been significant improvements, but the gap is increasing between those that are improving and those that are not."

He said the main areas schools would have to concentrate on would be children falling out of education because they did not get a good grounding in literacy and numeracy.

He said one key area to look at was making the curriculum work for post 14-year-olds and encouraging them to stay on at school.

He said: "It is important youngsters have options but I would rather they chose things they were interested in - the most important thing is keeping them in education."

Updated: 10:40 Tuesday, July 01, 2003