Leader: 'Cuts needed - but make the right ones'

CUTTING school budgets is never going to be popular and will always raise concern whatever way it is done.

But, if you accept that the cuts have to be made, then the city council puts forward a strong case for the approach it is taking.

Keeping more experienced teachers in the classroom and cutting back on senior management wherever it is deemed excessive are sensible priorities.

And so is retaining vital support staff, such as librarians, technicians and learning assistants, who allow teachers to get on with the job that they are paid to do.

It is also worth noting that the Capital will soon be one of the few places in Scotland where music tuition remains free.

There are certainly some anomalies in the way the city's schools are staffed right now that will be addressed by these plans.

Why for instance should a school with less than 400 pupils have the same number of depute head teachers as one with more than 1200 children? And it cannot be right that in five city high schools more than half the staff are working in promoted posts with all the extra pay that entails.

Of course, the current financial crisis hitting our schools is partly of the council's own making, and not just the fault of central Government. Had it grasped the nettle on school closures, the local authority would have no need to pursue such drastic city-wide measures.

But the acid test of the latest plan will come when head teachers have had time to digest the full details.

It is possible to support the city's broad approach to these cuts, in the meantime, but it is only head teachers who know best the daily pressures involved in running our schools. And only they who will know whether or not they are being pushed too far.

Getting better

THE work of the veterinary staff at Edinburgh Zoo's on-site animal hospital saving the lives of rare species is incredible by any standards.

It is of course sad to see the facility, including its animal ER operating theatre, in its current depleted state,

But it is reassuring to see the new management regime focused on the needs of all the animals and not just board room battles and the impending arrival of the pandas.

We have no doubt the zoo's many supporters will respond with the same generous support they always do when one of the city's favourite institutions calls for help.