Music fees on agenda as part of school cuts

Education chiefs have drawn up a host of proposals to reduce spending, with the vast majority aimed at reducing staffing costs. However, proposals which are likely to prove most controversial amongst parents include charging for music tuition, potentially leaving parents with more than one child having to find hundreds of pounds extra a year.

Any move to increase class sizes in English and maths for S1 and S2 pupils - from the current restriction of 20 - would also cause anger, though council chiefs will point out that this is in line with some other local authorities.

Out of the 10.5m of savings which need to be found across the children and families department, 3.3m has to be saved in the city's 23 secondary schools. Officials believe management costs in schools can be cut by up to 12 per cent and are looking at reducing the number of deputy heads in secondaries, which all have three at the moment, regardless of the size of the school.

They are also planning to merge the roles of school business managers and bursars in secondaries as education bosses believe they could operate with just one senior business post.

Other staffing savings being proposed include re-structuring the janitorial service by basing them in a "hub" to work over a wider area than just one school in a bid to save 831,000 and changing the contracts of librarians and technicians working in secondary schools so they just work term-time rather than 52 weeks of the year.

Another previously-revealed option which has already caused controversy is to increase the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom by 30 minutes a day in primaries and an hour per week in secondaries. It is estimated this could save the council more than 5 million over two years.

Council leader Jenny Dawe confirmed earlier this month that talks are already taking place on the issue, however any change to class contact time would require a re-negotiation of the 2001 McCrone agreement, which states that teachers work a 35-hour week but only 22.5 hours are spent teaching.

Education bosses have already met with parent representatives and parent council chairs and will meet them again next month to get their views on the proposals.City education leader Marilyne MacLaren said: "Children and families have gathered views from teachers, parents and unions and their suggestions were taken into account when proposals were drawn up.

"The various groups will be approached again soon to discuss the detail.

"There are some proposals that I have issues with but I will consider them all with the views of parents and teachers in mind.

"One thing is for sure - we will do our utmost to protect front line services." The Evening News revealed the scale of the council's budget cuts last week, which could see wheelie bin collections reduced to fortnightly, care homes and day-care services facing the axe, more than a dozen public toilets closing and a community recycling centre shutting down.

DOING THE MATHS

THE proposals to save 3.3 million in secondary schools include:

Reducing the number of bursar and business manager posts by having only one per school.

Cutting the number of deputy heads in schools where they are not needed.

Charging pupils for music tuition.

Increasing class sizes in S1 and S2 maths and English from 20 pupils.

Restructuring the janitorial service so janitors will look after more than one school.

Changing contracts for school librarians and technicians so that they only work term-time.

Increasing the amount of time teachers spend in the classroom.