尽管英国首相布朗保证将力顶政府在教育方面的投入，英国财政部的最新文件表明，明年英国在教育方面的政府拨款将下降1亿英镑。此次批露的数据也首次体现了政府财政紧缩带来的实际影响。排除通货膨胀的因素，2010至2011年，在教育方面的支出将从今年的851亿到减为850亿英镑。

虽然削减的金额非常有限，但有可能会引起颇多争议，因为这是20年以来首次在教育方面政府的投入有所减少。而本周三，布朗还表示政府要力保公共服务不受经济危机的影响。

英国财政部的发言人并不认同这是政府削减拨款，因为政府已经将一些明年的投入提前到位，比如政府将2010-11年的30亿经费用于支持经济复苏和在伊拉克与阿富汗的维和工作。同时，根据独立顾问的分析，英国政府明年通过开源节流，将有望节省出50亿的经费，这为保护重要服务和产业提供了资金的基础。

Education spending to be cut by £100m

Despite Gordon Brown pledging to safeguard spending on schools and universities, government documents show that the total education budget will fall by £100 million after the next election. The disclosure is in statistics that detail the true scale of the Government’s budget reductions for the first time. According to the figures, which are adjusted for inflation, total education spending will fall from £85.1是billion in 2009-10 to £85 billion in 2010-11.

While the cut is small in terms of the total budget, it is highly symbolic because it would be the first such drop since at least the late 1980s. Only on Wednesday, the Prime Minister insisted that spending on key public services would be safeguarded.

A Treasury spokesman said that the reductions should not be classified as “cuts”, since spending had been brought forward from subsequent years’ budgets. “It is ridiculous to suggest that the Government is planning cuts in defence spending or overall spending next year,” he said. “We have brought forward £3 billion of spending from 2010-11 in order to support the economy now and spending on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the basis of findings of independent advisers, the Government also announced in the Pre-Budget report that it would make £5 billion of efficiency savings next year, protecting funding for frontline services.”

（Source: Telegraph，英国使馆文化教育处提供）