Pupils have written appeals to Tony Blair

However, the Welsh Local Government Association, representing the eucation authorities, denies that the schools are under-funded and say that budgets are calculated on the basis of how many children attend a school.

This morning a bundle of hand-written letters from Welsh pupils dropped through the letter box at 10 Downing Street, addressed to Tony Blair, asking him to intervene.

They were from a group of worried 11-year-old pupils from a school in Mountain Ash, south Wales, who are hoping their letters will be on his desk when he returns from visiting British troops in Iraq.

I do not accept the claims that there has been a lack of funding for education in Wales Education minister Jane Davidson

The pupils want a firm reassurance from the prime minister that they will not lose any of their teachers due to the school budget shortfall crisis.

The youngsters, from Miskin Primary School, decided to cut through the red tape and go straight to the top. They did not even tell their parents.

One of the pupils, Rachel Butler, pleaded: "We need more money because you won't give us a lot of money, so we have to sack some teachers".

Rachel, like the other pupils who put pen to paper to the prime minister, is worried that they will all return from their half-term break to find familiar faces are no longer on the teaching staff and that years of building up confidence and trust have vanished overnight.

Friday is the cut-off date for redundancy talks and schools and local education authorities face the quandary of a cash shortfall.

Teachers' jobs are at risk according to one organisation

Jane Davidson, the Welsh education minister, said: "I do not accept the claims that there has been a lack of funding for education in Wales," stressing that central funding to councils had gone up by 9.2% this year, enough to cover schools' increased pay and other costs.

In England, the argument has centred around money intended for schools that has so far been ring-fenced by LEAs, a total of more than �590 million, putting pressure on individual head teachers who have to balance the books, with teachers wages taking up 90% of the school budget.

The UK Government has given the LEAs until next Monday to justify their decisions but, in Wales the budget statements from LEAs will not be available until July, creating greater uncertainty and pressure on individual head teachers who have to work with their existing money.