Unions call for investigation ahead of school budget cuts

Published on Tuesday 24 May 2011 11:45

TRADE unions are calling for an investigation into the impact of budget cuts in Edinburgh's secondary schools amid fears they will have a negative effect upon children's education.

&#149 Teachers protest against education spending and job cuts outside the Scottish Parliament yesterday

The EIS teaching union has joined forces with the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association and Unison to call on the council to halt the cuts until a full investigation has taken place into the consequences of the proposals.

Council bosses are preparing to remove the post of bursars in schools, reduce the number of deputy heads, cut principal teacher positions and reduce the number of janitors.

The unions believe all of these factors will directly hit the education children receive and are putting forward a motion to the council's education committee next month to ask for the plans to be reconsidered.

In a joint statement, the unions said schools would suffer as a result of the plans to introduce a faculty system where principal teachers would take charge of a whole department instead of individual subjects.

They said: "Principal teachers play a pivotal role in school management. Day-to-day management of learning and teaching is the responsibility of principal teachers and reducing their number can only have a negative impact."

The unions also believe that cuts to support staff will have a negative impact on school life.

The council wants to shed around 40 janitorial jobs and remove the post of bursar.

The unions' statement said: "Any reduction in janitorial hours will mean that a key resource is spread even thinner.

"There will be no time for anything beyond essential maintenance. We can ill afford to have even less time spent on ensuring that classrooms are clean, properly equipped and ready to use.

"Once again, ultimately the losers will be the pupils."

The unions added: "While the council maintains that these cuts will not directly affect young people's education, the truth is very different."

Councillor Paul Godzik, Labour's education spokesman, said: "This process will severely damage education.

"Unions would have liked to have been involved in the related discussions from the start, and parents and opposition councillors would also have liked to, but it doesn't seem that the administration wanted to listen to any dissenting voices.

"We have had the administration drafting up proposals which are certainly not out in the open and there's no real scrutiny."

A spokesman for the council said: "The council is facing unprecedented financial pressure and has approved a budget which protects frontline services.

"These changes are being planned with the full engagement of headteachers, unions and professional associations.

"We are confident that changes won't have a negative impact on teaching and learning."