Election 2015: Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg plans to woo parents with £2.5bn education pledge

Nick Clegg will attempt to win over the parent vote ahead of the general election when he promises to pump £2.5bn ($3.6bn) of extra funding into England's education budget.

The pledge will be unveiled as the Liberal Democrat leader launches his party's manifesto today, with just weeks to go before polling day on 7 May.

The major commitment to protect education funding for every child in England will see the country's budget for two to 19-year-olds raised to £55bn by 2020.

The Liberal Democrats said the additional cash is equivalent to paying for 70,000 teachers and 10,000 learning support assistants for the 460,000 extra children starting school through the next parliament.

Clegg will bill the Liberal Democrats as "the party of education" on the back of pledge and stress that he wants to "make sure that every child in Britain has a world class education".

"We want to ensure that every child, no matter where they are born, the colour of their skin, or how rich their parents are, has the same opportunity to reach their potential is," the deputy prime minister will say.

"At the last election, protecting schools spending and investing huge amounts of extra money towards the poorest pupils was one of our top priorities.

"I am immensely proud that we did just that in government. But we won't rest there. We are determined to make sure that every child in Britain has a world class education."

The party leader said the funding would enable a Liberal Democrat government to put a qualified teacher in every classroom, recruit and retain more good teachers, help schools to offer more one-to-one and small group tuition and expand early years education as pupil numbers grow.

The pledge is £5bn a year more than what the Tories are offering and £2.5bn more than Labour by 2020, according to the Liberal Democrats.

But the Conservatives have claimed that the Liberal Democrats would create "uncertainty" for parents and teachers.

"The Conservatives are the only party who are prepared to protect the money that schools get for each pupil," a Tory spokesperson said.

"And the reason we can afford to do this, unlike Labour or the Liberal Democrats, is because we are building a strong economy.

"A vote for the Liberal Democrats will create uncertainty for parents and teachers – and make it more likely that Ed Miliband becomes prime minister with all the chaos that entails."