Anger over quiz show cash

Patrick Sawer12 April 2012

Ministers are today accused of wasting £1million of taxpayers' money on sponsoring ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

The money is to pay for the screening of commercials for the Education Department's Internet education service learndirect at the start and end of each quiz show and at either side of the commercial breaks.

The campaign, arranged by the non-profit making company University For Industry set up in 1998 to encourage adults to learn new skills, will run for just under three months, between September and November.

Today teachers' leaders and the Tories condemned the deal - the cost of which could pay for 60 new teachers or 1,000 computers - as an "outrageous waste".

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "This is an unbelievable decision which raises questions about how government money is being misapplied when schools are crying out for resources."

Tory education spokesman Damian Green said: "This is a colossal waste of a significant slice of learndirect's budget. It is supposed to do serious things, but marketing like this is little more than gimmickry."

Learndirect was developed in 2000 to encourage a million adults to take up further education. It gives advice on courses covering both basic skills and more advanced subjects and offers its own courses where provision is poor. Basic skills such as reading, writing and numeracy are free.

This year the network received £76 million from the Education Department and has already spent part of its marketing budget to sponsor ITV's This Morning.

Advertisers have questioned the value of the new deal as ratings for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? have slumped from an original 14million.

But UFI's marketing director Phil Wade said: "The show regularly demonstrates to more than eight million viewers the link between knowledge and the potential for wealth."

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