Education secretary Michael Gove is to provide an extra £4m for the award-winning Teach First charity, despite drastic cuts of up to £3.5bn to the schools budget.

The plans come just days after Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, wrote to ministers asking them to identify cuts of up to 40 per cent before the autumn spending review.

The cuts will be felt in two areas. Gove (pictured) plans to freeze the Building Schools for the Future programme, which will save over £1bn per year. The extra spending planned by former Labour education minister Ed Balls will also be reined in, saving £2.5bn.

Balls said: "it’s a black day for our country’s schools", whilst Stephen Twigg, minister of state for schools 2004-2005, believes it is "disastrous news for schools in communities up and down the country".

However, Gove attempted to balance the cuts by announcing the additional Teach First funding, and by unveiling reforms to the A-level system that will supposedly ensure students are better prepared for university.

Teach First, launched in 2002, is a charity aimed at social change, encouraging the best graduates and teachers to work in schools in deprived areas. It won the education and training category at the Charity Awards 2009 and is set to expand into primary schools and all regions of England.