40 teaching school staff face the axe in cutbacks

The university is being forced to scale down the number of places it offers at the Moray House School of Education in line with national policy on reducing student teacher intakes.

A senior education lecturer today warned that Scotland's schools will lose out on vital expertise if the plans go ahead.

The number of places offered on the one-year primary PGDE teaching course at Moray House has reduced by three-quarters, from 280 last year to just 66, while the secondary equivalent has gone down by almost a quarter, from 186 to 142. The four-year BEd primary teaching course has reduced its available places from 185 to 125. The cuts to teacher training places are expected to lead to 40 staff – including lecturers and research academics – losing their jobs.

Terry Wrigley, senior lecturer in education at Moray House and the University and College Union's Edinburgh rep, said: "They are encouraging people to leave and take voluntary severance but they have said there will almost certainly have to be compulsory redundancies. They are going to send the official five-month notice letter to almost every member of staff here at the end of February.

"They intend to lose the equivalent of 40 staff from Moray House which will be an enormous loss of expertise.

"People here don't just teach students, they research education to support that, they publish and give advice to schools and local authorities, and they provide staff development to schools.

"This will be a real loss to Scotland's schools."

Mr Wrigley blamed the Scottish Government for failing to live up to its election pledge to reduce class sizes.

He also warned that this is short-term planning as the number of teacher training places will have to be increased again soon.

He said: "Within a year or so they will have to raise the numbers again but, by that time, they will have thrown away vast expertise.

"We would lose the ability to teach the full programme and that's very serious."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is strongly committed to supporting higher education. However, in September 2009, the Scottish Government took the decision to reduce student teacher intakes to deal with teacher unemployment.

"By reducing student numbers we can create more jobs for those teachers already qualified. We are in discussions with all of the initial teacher education providers to ensure we can maintain capacity in the system to meet Scotland's future teacher training needs."

An Edinburgh University spokesman said: "We are seeking to find the best possible response to what we anticipate will be a reduction in the requirement for, and funding of, initial teacher education provision.

"We will do so in full consultation with staff and unions."