Pupils may be hit by council budget cuts

Published on Sunday 30 November 2008 21:05

TEACHERS fear budget cuts mean pupils will suffer as schools are forced to lose staff.

Already, some local authorities are announcing redundancies and cutting spending.

Glasgow City Council has said 78 teachers will have to go as a result of falling rolls. However, none of the job losses will be compulsory. Instead, voluntary redundancies and natural wastage would achieve the necessary cuts.

The city council has identified 22 million of savings but still has 3 million to find.

Similarly, Aberdeen City Council needs to find 25 million of cuts to fill a financial black hole, but it has said teachers' jobs will not be cut.

Teachers unions have warned falling numbers mean the government's smaller class sizes target would not be met.

Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of Scotland's biggest teaching union, the EIS, said: "There is a gap opening up between what local authorities are doing on the ground and high level concordat promises on employing more teachers.

"A number of authorities such as Renfrewshire have decided to walk away from the government circular which says there should be a maximum of 20 in S1 and S2 maths and English.

"The issue is whether authorities are playing ball and, if not, what is the Scottish Government going to do about it?"

Ann Ballinger, the president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, said: "Teacher numbers are dropping in certain areas because of the current financial situation.

"In better financial circumstances, if schools had extra teachers they might have used them to reduce class sizes, but that is not happening now."