No hours cut for school librarians

EDUCATION chiefs have ditched plans to cut the hours worked by librarians in schools following objections from parents, headteachers and authors.

Bosses in the children and families department had been considering changing the contracts of school librarians so they just work term-time rather than 52 weeks of the year.

However, following objections from schools and parents, city education leader Councillor Marilyne MacLaren confirmed that this proposal was no longer on the table.

Her announcement came after dozens of authors banded together to urge bosses to re-think their "attack" on the librarians.

The authors, who work regularly in Edinburgh's schools, argued that a reduction of hours would have a damaging impact on pupils and were angry librarians were being treated as "shelf-stackers".

Cllr MacLaren's announcement also came ahead of today's planned protest outside the Scottish Parliament on cuts to library services across the country where Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, was due to hand in a statement.

Cllr MacLaren said the decision not to pursue the proposal was actually made "weeks ago".

She said: "I had listened to all the arguments.

"I believe that school librarians play a very vital role so cutting them was not going to work."

Children's author Lari Don, who lives in Leith, was one of the many writers who signed a letter to education bosses.

She argued that the proposed cuts were an "attack" on librarians.