Teaching jobs go as council cuts 81 posts in bid to save £2 million

Published on Friday 20 February 2009 20:55

RENFREWSHIRE council is to axe 81 school jobs, including 28 teachers, as part of £2.4 million worth of cuts.

Dozens of teachers, classroom assistants, admin staff, foreign language assistants and music tutors are to go.

However, the local authority insists the posts will not be compulsory redundancies, but lost through redeployment, voluntary redundancies and retirement.

The move comes as education absorbs its share of efficiency savings imposed by the SNP and Liberal Democrat led administration.

Wendy Alexander, Paisley North MSP, described the move as a disgrace and called for the cuts to be reversed.

She said: "Parents, pupils and teachers do not want these cuts. The council should come clean about these plans and put them out for consultation."

Derek Mackay, the Renfrewshire Council leader, said the move was necessary because of falling rolls.

The number of pupils in Renfrewshire's 11 secondary and 51 primary schools has dropped by around 1,000 compared with 2007-8.

Mr Mackay said: "One of the reasons we have fewer teachers is that we have fewer pupils – it's a simple equation.

"Spending per pupil has increased from 5,281 to a new level of 5,875 and the education savings are proportionately less than all other council departments."

Renfrewshire is not the first council to announce cuts in teaching posts.

Glasgow City Council has said 78 teachers will have to go as a result of falling rolls.

Again the authority insisted none of the job losses would be compulsory. Instead, voluntary redundancies and natural wastage would achieve the necessary cuts.

The city council had already identified 22 million of savings but announced the job losses to find another 3m.

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

Teaching unions previously 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, previously 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."

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

Meanwhile, Stirling Council is to shut two old people's homes to cut costs as a result of the recession.

The authority will axe the city centre Wellgreen care home and the Beech Gardens care home, in the city's Torbrex area, to save between 250,000 and 430,000.

The nationalist-controlled council said 50 jobs would be "directly affected" as a result.

The 40 residents affected will be transferred to other care homes.

In total, 170 posts within the council, plus around 50 administration posts, will also go as a result of the package.