Teacher fury over pothole repair funds

Published on Tuesday 7 February 2012 12:04

SCOTLAND’s largest teaching union has blasted council plans to invest a “spare” £2 million filling potholes rather than shoring up its slashed education budget.

Edinburgh members of the Educational Institute of Scotland have railed against using surplus cash for street improvements, which they say prioritises “cosmetic improvements” over children.

A shake-up of the management structure in Edinburgh’s 23 secondary schools will see 139 principal teachers demoted and 15 deputy head posts axed to save £2.4m over two years.

But education leader Councillor Marilyne MacLaren said it was “completely inaccurate” to associate the changes to the management structures with this investment funding.

She said: “The management changes were identified last February as one of the permanent savings required to address the projected deficit in the council’s budget.”

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16

bifter

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 09:42 AM

As if I need to add my voice but here goes... The state of the roads in Edinburgh should embarrass anyone who lives here given the number of visitors to our city. It's a municipal disgrace. I've been to east European countries with better road infrastructure. If our schools were in an equivalent state to our roads we'd be excused for thinking we were living in a third world nation. They need fixed, end of!

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15

paulr

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:24 AM

There is nothing "cosmetic" about these repairs, they are very necessary and long overdue. The cost to haulage firms and ordinary drivers of repairs to damage caused by these potholes far outweighs the cost to the council. And we cannnot forget the injuries to pedestrians especially the elderly from tripping on broken paving.

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14

tartantt

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:55 PM

Spending on education has rocketed, & repairing potholes is so so necessary. I get the impression that the E.I.S. are very insular, & seem to want to get more & more cash, to the exclusion of all others. Try looking at how teachers managed in days gone by, with great success, & with far fewer resources.

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13

leithforme

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 06:12 PM

#4 yes it was brave of me - just wondered what the response would be if I put what a lot of people think - surprisingly mild so far! #6 sorry about the spelling mistake, I'm dyslexic and sometimes get words mixed up - nothing an education will particularly fix, even with the latest gadgets, I just get on with life not worrying about the odd spelling, contextual or grammatical mistake. The Education budget, and other council budgets are in such a mess not because of cuts, but decisions like spending tens of millions a year from the revenue budget on PFI~PPP school buildings that should have been built from the capital budget, but politicians like to able to say lots of new schools built and have photo opportunities whatever the real and long term consequences, or signing up to long term IT contracts where they lease computers for £3,000 a year instead of just buying them for a couple of hundred quid and throwing them away and buying new every year, or signing up to consumables supply contracts through COSLA and the Scottish Executive where instead of buying a printer cartridge for a fiver from the local shop, and keeping the money in the local community, you have to buy it from some company in England that 'won' the contract for £40 and wait 6 weeks for it to arrive, or so many levels of management that nobody has a clue who's in charge of what, and even if you could track them down they'd refuse any responsibility for fear of standing out from the cowering masses and be next to be singled out for redundancy. The problem is the council is rotten to the core and the current administration, without doubt the worst ever; there’s only one way to fix that, but the voting system is rigged so the four main parties shuffle control through their inadequate, idiotic coalition formed, hands forever; they might as just fix the roads so we can all at least drive off somewhere else!

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12

joewood

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 05:51 PM

How about the pupils filling in the potholes, call it work experience, and then spend the money on education

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11

Tintock Pete

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 04:16 PM

Yes, spend money on out of date computers. BTW what happened to Paul the (ex) Binman when he spoke to the press?

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10

Katies kid

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 04:03 PM

I agree that the money should be spent on filling up the pot holes rather than being passed on to the education budget, for the simple reason that children could fall and hurt themselves in the pot holes and we wouldn't want that to happen - would we?

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9

Intervention

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 03:49 PM

Did Edinburgh members of EIS support the Labour, Tory, Lib Dem or Green Parties who voted to spend £50 million of scarce City resources on Trams rather than schools?

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8

Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 02:19 PM

Indeed, this money should be spent on resurfacing the school playgrounds, AKA the teachers free car park

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7

Bourneville

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 02:13 PM

Basically, the teachers are attacking the wrong target. The roads have been underfunded for years (as is obvious when you see the condition they're in) and need the investment. If they'd like more money for education, try targeting some of the less necessary things the council's spending on. Like the trams.

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6

escape from spam valley

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:39 PM

#3 How odd. Perhaps you were never a child or never went to school? (I ought to point out you did spell 'bear' wrongly). Perhaps you ought work for the council in helping them prioritise things! We all benefit from a good education either directly or indirectly. I do agree the roads could be better- but then we're spending all this money on trams and Xmas attractions.....

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5

Tintock Pete

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:39 PM

Does the EiS deplore the money spent on their full time union officials which could buy a few books.

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4

Incandescent

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:33 PM

#3 That's mighty brave of you. Just wait for the vitriolic response.

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3

leithforme

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:15 PM

while I deplore the use of the £2million they've suddenly managed to find as an election bribe, perhaps the EIS could bare in mind that a large proportion of council tax payers don't have children, and are frankly sick of every penny being prioritised by politicians and the media for education; Edinburgh roads, surface and systems, have become over the past five years, easily the worst in the UK and possibly in Europe. That this is the direct fault of the senior council management and councillors, will hopefully bare some consideration at the coming elections, but in the meantime, the fact that they at least recognise the state of Edinburgh's roads is simply not acceptable; and if that means a few less laptops, digital projectors, smartboards or whatever is the latest must-have, then it's about time!

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2

Velv

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:14 PM

Fixing damaged roads is hardly a "cosmetic improvement" - what if a bus full of schoolchildren were to overturn having hit one of the potholes. OK, so this is unlikely, but potholes do cause severe damage to vehicles every year, many leading to council payouts for the required repairs.

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