THE need for universities to help schools deliver exams is likely to increase in future with a raft of fresh cuts to frontline education services.
An analysis of proposed council budgets shows many local authorities are considering a reduction in teachers and a cut in the number of subjects on offer in secondary schools.
Falkirk said they were looking at a review of secondary provision in a bid to save £2 million over two years, which would result in a narrowing of pupil options.
If agreed, the council said the result would be to “reduce curriculum subject choice and Advanced Highers” as well as cutting teacher numbers by 40.
Clackmannanshire Council is also considering a reduction in subjects to save £352,000 while other councils considering cuts to provision include South Ayrshire.
A spokesman for local authority umbrella body Cosla, which highlighted a £153m cut to local government following the Scottish Budget, said: Reductions to councils’ funding overall certainly won’t improve the situation regarding cutbacks.”
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents secondary headteachers, called for a dialogue.
He said: “Any cuts with a direct impact on young people’s life chances should be discussed with headteachers because this might lead to a more proportionate, considered and long-term sustainable approach.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Local government funding to schools has been very fair and is increasing, despite the cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK government.
“We have consulted on fairer funding for schools and we are committed to producing firm proposals by summer 2018.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here