Schools take biggest hit

The decision has triggered outrage. The local authority promised that busses would be laid on when the school was opened recently.

One parent, Sandra Ross, says: "We're worried about our children. It is not a safe route to walk." Parents are to walk the route tomorrow with their children in the hope of illustrating just how dangerous the decision may be.

On Tuesday, it is Edinburgh. As many as 500 parents are expected to gather outside City Chambers over the widespread cutbacks which are being imposed on their primary and secondary schools. Franck Bederet, co-chair of Bruntsfield Primary school, one of the schools affected, says the situation is dire. "We are struggling to pay the electricity bills. The budget for that has already been spent by December and we have three months already to go. We have spent 2,000 helping the school to buy books. We are buying essential items because the school can't find the money."

Soon it will be all over Scotland. While vague talk of cutbacks fills the political chambers at Holyrood and Westminster, schools are already feeling the impact. No other public service has quite the same potential as education to cause a backlash from people on the front line. No other public service user can quite drum up the same level of indignant fury as a parent who feels their child is getting a raw deal. And while the great recessions of the past have been marked out by uncollected rubbish and riots over taxes, it may just be that Scotland's public sector recession of the next few years could be defined by the state of our schools.

One education minister fell by the wayside last year, when Fiona Hyslop was demoted from the job. But the same cocktail of unfulfilled promises, buck-passing politicians, and an unprecedented squeeze on cash that led to her demise continues to face her successors. The parents in Linwood and Edinburgh who this week will be getting out to protest are likely to be just a harbinger of things to come. The cutbacks facing schools across Scotland look grim. So what exactly are parents and pupils facing? And are ministers going to get a grip?

EDINBURGH, the scene of this week's rally, is among the worst hit areas in Scotland, but is being considered by many as a test case for other towns and cities. The Edinburgh Parent Councils Network has produced its own dossier of anecdotal evidence of the crisis it is facing which has been presented to the council. The picture they paint is stark. At Parsons Green Primary, a parent notes how the headteacher has been forced to cover classes because he can't afford to buy in supply teachers. "He has been severely stretched at a time when he would like to be concentrating his efforts on implementing the improvement plan from the recent School Review and HMI inspection. The impact is a headteacher who is grey with the fatigue of working the hours required to do it all."

Other dispatches from around the city paint a grim picture. At Broughton primary school: "Average available spend per pupil on resources (e.g. jotters, paper, etc) has reduced from 80 to around 22." And at Victoria school, another parent reports: "No money, so teachers cannot be released to go on training as we cannot afford the supply cover… morale is very low and they do not feel that they or the schools are valued." And then this parent from Broughton High School: "Meltdown! Teachers and management are already stretched too far; fewer pupils will stay through to S6 due to reduced course choices; teachers will withdraw support for extra-curricular activities; morale of pupils and teachers will decline; attainment will suffer as a result of these cuts."

What is going on? Only nine years ago, in 2001, the then education minister Jack McConnell announced that he and teaching unions had agreed a breakthrough deal on pay – the McCrone agreement – which would, he said, achieve "the great prize of creating a teaching profession for the 21st century." A phased-in 21.5 per cent pay rise, less contact time and more assistant teachers would revolutionise the profession. Never again, said McConnell, would pupils have to suffer conditions like those in the 1980s. But now it seems that the same problems are returning.

In Edinburgh, the money is drying up. The parent group claims that effectively schools are facing a 4 per cent cut in spending this year – equivalent to 40,000 for an average primary school, or up to 160,000 for a larger secondary school. The basic problem is that almost all spending goes on staffing. Consequently, the number of ways to save money are limited. John Stodter, general secretary of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, said councils all attempt at first to find savings around the edges, for example on school meals, music tuition, or parental community education. Then there is administration and contract renegotiating. But he admits: "If you are going to make big savings you cannot not look at your teaching staffing." And there is no getting away from the problems that causes, he adds. "Once you start cutting staff it has an immediate effect. You take out a secondary teacher and when pupils come to taking their subject choices their options are reduced. At school level financial cuts always have an effect."

Councils are also having to factor in obligatory annual pay rises of 2.5 per cent for all teachers – meaning that even an increase in funding at the rate of inflation is a real term cut. The problem is being worsened, say critics of the Scottish Government, by the accord they have struck with councils. The Concordat has given councils complete autonomy to spend the cash they receive from Edinburgh as they see fit. Labour's education spokesman Des McNulty argues: "All across Scotland there is a squeeze on education which is a product of the fact that the government have declared policies, but no powers. In Edinburgh, education takes up 40 per cent of the entire budget, so the fact of the matter is that education is taking its share of the punishment."

The vulnerable low-hanging fruit are the learning assistants and specialist teachers who are now finding they are surplus to requirements. Supply teachers are also not being sought out, as senior management attempt to fill in the gaps when core staff are off sick. Secondary Heads say that, inevitably, this means that schools are having to reduce the variety of courses they can offer. Ken Cunningham, the general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, and former head of Hillhead High in Glasgow, says: "It means you are questioning the kind of courses you can run and the subjects you can run and that puts the qualifications you can offer in jeopardy."

Meanwhile, probationary teachers are finding there are not the jobs around after they have completed their year in training. In 2008, the number of unemployed teachers hit a three-year high, sparking an announcement by the Scottish Government to reduce the number of places at teacher training colleges across the country.

This is now bringing into question the ability of the Scottish education system to handle its prized new toy – the Curriculum for Excellence. The 3-18 curriculum was supposed to be revolutionising the classroom by now, but teachers say they simply cannot manage the change from the old curriculum when they are fire-fighting just to keep going. The "Continuous Professional Development" promised by the McCrone deal is not happening in many cases, because schools cannot spare teachers being taken away from the classroom. Cunningham adds: "Schools can't even buy new textbooks for Curriculum for Excellence."

First Minister Alex Salmond hit back at his Labour critics in First Minister's Questions last week, pointing to figures provided by councils which show that spending on school education is due to rise in the coming year by 4.1 per cent.

But the parents on the ground feel the buck is being passed. Councils are throwing up their hands, insisting nothing can be done. Holyrood is throwing up its too, insisting it's for councils to decide. Schools, meanwhile, are the ones having to make the tough choices. The likelihood is that the only way to get through the coming years is for councils to either close down schools which aren't full or reduce the numbers of teachers in them. Or both.

At Bruntsfield primary, Franck Bederet declares: "The government says we are trying to protect front-line services. But we know that 90 per cent of costs are staff. We know that when the head is going to implement cuts the first ones to go will be learning assistants and specialist teachers. They are very precious. The parents are very worried indeed."