A STAGGERING £50,000 is being spent on a sex education puppet show for secondary schools in Blackpool at the same time as a national survey reveals spending on books in schools is well below target levels.

Pupils from Bispham High School Arts College, St George's High School and Revoe Village First Step Centre are working with visual theatre company Dynamic New Animation (DNA) on a project to illustrate sex education issues through puppets and live theatre.

The scheme has received £50,000 funding from the North West Arts Lottery Project, but a nationwide survey by the Educational Publishers Council between 1999 and 2000 revealed that the average level of spending on important books in secondary schools is £22 per pupil. This figure is below the target of £67 per pupil.

The puppet show, which uses puppets like the one pictured here, sis being used by the imaginative Blackpool youngsters as part of an innovative national programme to tackle sex and relationship issues with teenagers. The pupils will then have the opportunity to tour with a production company of professional puppeteers and perform at local schools. Rachel Riggs, the artistic director for DNA explained the initiative in further detail: "The cast is made up of 15 teenagers all between eleven and 15 years of age.

"They are using different kinds of puppets to express opinions and emotions associated with sex and relationships. After the group perform in the Working Progress Show at the Grand Theatre in May we are going to tour schools in the local area with our production."

John Davis, director of the Educational Publishers Association, said the total amount being spent on books is £56 million a year, but government targets are around £140 million.

But Pat Hansell, head of cultural services at Blackpool Borough Council, defended spending on schemes such as the puppet show. She said: "There is never enough money for anything in education, and this is not a set of figures I have come across.

"Different heads have different priorities and there are other methods of teaching than book learning, such as selected handouts, classroom interaction, IT facilities etc. The puppet scheme is just a different way of teaching and with the levels of teenage pregnancy as they are it can only be a good thing."