LIB DEM CHALLENGES INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE FUNDING CUT WITH CAMBRIDGE IMPACT

Following the government’s announcement on Friday 7th October that it would stop funding state schools to support the delivery of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP), the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge Cheney Payne has written to Labour MP Daniel Zeichner to call on him to fight for a rethink of this move that will affect 5000 students, but save very little money.

The IB DP is a qualification offered at 20 secondary schools in the country, including Parkside Community College in Cambridge.   Previously, the Department for Education have funded £2,400 per pupil to schools to help the schools to deliver the IB DP, which includes an academically challenging curriculum respected by universities worldwide; a broad range of subjects; critical thinking and community service.

On Friday, the government announced it would stop this funding for the next academic year onwards.

In response, Cheney Payne, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge, has written to local Labour MP Daniel Zeichner to urge him to challenge the government on this penny pinching decision.  

Cheney said, “Yet another funding cut to the public sector, which will save very little money but reduce opportunities for young people.  The IB DP is globally recognised, respected by universities in over 110 countries, and means young people can seek further education anywhere in the world. The government should be creating opportunities for international collaboration and interchange of ideas, not stifling them.”

As a teacher in another Cambridgeshire school, Cheney highlighted the many concerns facing the state education system at the moment, including a report from the Public Accounts Committee in January 2025 which said that the system for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is at “crisis point.”  

Cheney said: “This is fiddling while Rome burns.  I am a teacher at a Cambridgeshire secondary school, and the impact of the cuts to school funding, particularly for SEND support, is felt every day. As the number of students with SEND increases year on year; children, their parents and schools themselves are desperate for proper support.  The government’s efforts should be focussed on providing proper SEND support, improving our school buildings and funding schools properly, not tinkering around the edges with a new cut that saves little money but limits the prospects for Cambridge children.”