The government has confirmed its plans to help schools and other non-domestic energy users with their energy bills this autumn.
Ministers say their plan to reduce rates to a “government-supported price” of £211 per megawatt hour for electricity and £75 for gas will equate to a saving of £4,000 for a school paying £10,000 a month for energy.
A head teacher said his school could no longer afford new text books after its gas bill went up by more than £100,000.
Vic Goddard, the head of a trust made up of four schools in Harlow, Essex, said he was struggling to sleep because of the “frightening” situation and could “no longer afford books”.
“I came into this job to make a difference, but how can I do that when we have no resources?” he said.
“If a teacher comes to me and says we need new text books, I will have to say no because we can’t afford it,” he said.
The government said it was increasing budgets for schools and recommending energy deals.
More and more schools are moving to use of online teaching resources to compliment their traditional resources and which helps reduce dependencies on textbooks. CoreSciences is an online teaching and learning platform that focuses on the all required practical components of the GCSE science curriculum and all associated curricular topics.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said the government was increasing core funding by £4bn this year and helping schools “get the best value for money from their resources” by recommending deals to manage energy costs and looking at other ways schools can teach students at half the cost.
As well as assisting teachers and their students, CoreSciences also engages parents and those that may not have access to practical experiments such as home-schoolers and other student groups allowing it to be accessible to students across the UK no matter what financial background they come from.