Leader comment: School cuts

As the inevitable public sector cuts continue to bite it isn't just parents and teachers who think that the last place politicians should go looking for money is our schools.

Reducing resources in classrooms may be expedient in the short term but it could cost us all dear in the long term if the education of the next generation of entrepreneurs and workers suffers.

That is not to say that no teachers should ever be made redundant, or that no school management structure should ever be streamlined. With pressure on every public penny, even our schools cannot be exempt from the drive for efficiency.

The trick is to strike a balance which ensures the money we pay in taxes which is earmarked for education goes on keeping academic standards as high as possible.

The problem for parents is that it is hard to know who to believe in the current wrangle over promoted posts in the city's schools.

Despite their historical roots as a body devoted to raising education standards, the EIS is principally a trade union designed to protect its teacher members - and in the recent past it has been a particularly dogged opponent of change.

On the other hand, parents will be understandably unwilling to take at face value politicians' claims that they can save 2.4 million without harming their kids' chances.

On balance, we tend to agree with parent council spokeswoman Tina Woolnough that there needs to be a pause to look more closely at the plans - and especially to take into account the views of headteachers, who are best placed to assess how they will affect pupils.

Board stupid

There was a time when the untamed spread of advertising A-boards along the Royal Mile and Rose Street was threatening to turn them into some kind of urban assault course.

But now it is looking increasingly like we have gone too far the other way by trying to ban them from the streets altogether.

Almost 80 per cent of businesses say trade has been damaged by the crackdown and most people questioned by the council don't believe it has made the streets look any better or easier to get around.

The findings, which had not been published by the local authority, put a severe dent in its case for extending the ban across large parts of the city centre.

No-one wants to go back to the days of being overrun by A-boards, but it seems we are still some way from finding the right balance between supporting local traders and keeping the streets free of clutter.