A COUNCIL has come under fire for axing teachers who support pupils who struggle with basic English.

The attack from teaching unions comes after Glasgow City Council revealed plans to cut 15 English as an Additional Language (EAL) posts in January.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union said the posts were being lost at a time when there was an increased need for such provision with greater numbers of pupils arriving in Glasgow who do not have English as a first language.

The cuts also come just weeks after the local authority announced the loss of 22 posts in a council service that supports pupils with learning difficulties such as autism in mainstream schools.

However, the council said the cuts were unavoidable at a time when budgets were being reduced and appealed to the Scottish Government to give more financial support to the city.

Hugh Donnelly, the EIS local association secretary, said: "We understand the budget pressures, but the need for accountability, as well as fairness and transparency, remain.

"We understand that this has been primarily a political and not an educational decision, given that there is increasing need for EAL and inclusion support teachers.

"The reality is that cuts in specialist provision impact on all pupils and students and there has been no assessment of the impact of introducing the changes mid-session on schools and headteachers."

Mr Donnelly called for the transfer of staff to be halted where it could be seen as detrimental to the service so that a "full and proper" assessment under the 2010 Equality Act and Glasgow's own equality impact assessment guidance could be carried out.

Stephen Curran, the council's executive member for education, said: "The council had flexibility to add a small number of temporary EAL staff over the past two years, but that's no longer possible with budget pressures and looming cuts in our funding settlement from Scottish ministers.

"Reflecting the city's growing diversity, including over 1,000 new pupils from all over the world who now enrol at our schools annually, the council is asking our new First Minister for her support in enabling more specialist EAL teachers to be employed in the city she represents."

"Equality impact assessment is a process which has been carried out from the outset of the review of the services. The documentation has also been completed in line with council policy."