DECENT investment in education makes a real difference. Just ask the two York head teachers who have been given the go-ahead to spend £ million each on their schools. They are clearly excited by what this boost will mean for their pupils.

In the case of All Saints RC School, the new four-classroom block will provide modern facilities on a site that dates back 300 years. It should also relieve overcrowding. Manor CE School students, meanwhile, will benefit enormously from a performing arts and music block.

Most of the £1 million comes from a Government pot to help voluntary-aided schools. Both Manor and All Saints are successful schools which deserve these resources.

But more investment is needed, most urgently at Hob Moor Junior and Infant Schools, St Barnabas CE Primary and St Oswald's CE Primary. Four times they have applied for Government cash to bring their classrooms up to standard, and they have yet to receive a penny.

As a result many York children continue to be taught in grim, damp, cramped surroundings. A Hob Moor parent governor said the school resembled a prison camp, an accurate description of the tin shacks that pass as classrooms, complete with buckets to catch rainwater dripping through the roof.

Our children deserve better at the start of the 21st century. At the moment these pupils are succeeding in spite of their environment. That is not good enough.

The last bid for Government cash to upgrade the schools "just missed out", disappointed officers at City of York Council said. Their fifth bid recently cleared the first hurdle on the long road to what has become an almost mythical pot of gold.

This time it must succeed: Hob Moor's aluminium classrooms should have been replaced 30 years ago.

An investment in our schools is an investment in the future. Two York schools can now look forward with renewed confidence. It is high time that Hob Moor, St Barnabas and St Oswald's schools were able to do the same.