THE mother of a knifeman's victim has welcomed Government plans to spend £22m on making classrooms safer.

But Diane Conroy, whose daughter, Nikki was stabbed to death during a maths lesson, believes that radical changes should have been implemented sooner.

Mrs Conroy spoke after Estelle Morris, the School Standards Minister, announced the grant yesterday, to England's 150 local education authorities, allowing them to decide how to spend their share.

Yesterday's package is the latest attempt to eradicate tragedies like that involving 12-year-old Nikki, who was stabbed at Middlesbrough's Hall Garth School in 1994 by crazed schizophrenic Stephen Wilkinson.

Nikki's classmates Emma Winter and Michelle Reeve were also hurt in the attack, for which Wilkinson was convicted of manslaughter and detained for life at a secure hospital.

Last night Mrs Conroy, of Middlesbrough, welcomed the news that the town's schools are to receive £65,000.

She said: "I think this will be a great help to the teachers. I don't think anyone should be allowed in schools until who they are supposed to be seeing is identified, and I think CCTV would help with this."

The grants are intended for use on physical security systems as well as security-related training for staff and pupils.

Mrs Conroy said school staff were the best placed to decide which measures would be most effective.

Mrs Conroy said: "I just wish the Government had done more after Nikki died. Security was stepped up at Hall Garth and other schools in the area but they should have done something more drastic. Two years later, it was Dunblane."