Teachers being sought to take redundancy

COUNCIL bosses in Midlothian are offering voluntary redundancy to secondary school teachers.

They have identified a surplus of around 17 teachers and the council is looking for staff who may be interested in taking voluntary severance or early retirement.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are now in the early stages of identifying staff in the affected subject areas who may be interested in being considered for voluntary severance or early retirement.

"The council faces unprecedented cuts in funding in the coming years and in setting its budget this year warned of painful cuts and the need for us to focus on prioritising services."

The council is working with teaching union the EIS.

Sonia Kordiak, the EIS Midlothian representative, said: "The EIS is opposed to compulsory redundancies and it will work with the council to try to prevent redundancies from occurring.

"It's regrettable that the education system are having to pay for the mistakes of others."