MINISTERS have been accused of abandoning policies to protect teacher numbers and reduce class sizes.

 

Teachers' leaders issued the warning after figures showed nearly half of councils cut teachers last year leading to a rise in pupil-teacher ratios.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union said the financial settlement, published late last year, made no mention of future funding of these previously key policies.

Larry Flanagan, the EIS general secretary, has now written to John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, to raise the union's concerns over the terms of the local authority budget settlement.

He said: "The settlement, which seemed to grant local authorities license to attack teacher numbers and increase class sizes, suggests that the Scottish Government is willing to abandon key commitments to Scotland's pupils, parents and teachers.

"This comes despite its earlier protestations about accepting the importance of maintaining teacher numbers to ensure a sound learning environment and high-quality educational experience for pupils.

"We have already seen class sizes increase across Scotland even with guarantees on teacher numbers in place. Now, with the potential removal of these protections, councils would be able to cut back still further on teaching staff numbers with damaging consequences for young people in our classrooms."

In December, The Herald revealed the councils that reduced teacher numbers despite a supposedly binding agreement with the Scottish Government.

The largest fall was in Fife, where 67 teaching posts were lost, followed by Edinburgh with a cut of 63 teachers. There were also reductions in the Scottish Borders, Dundee, South Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire.

Overall the number of teachers across Scotland has fallen by more than 250 to 50,824 in 2014 compared to the previous year.

Under the terms of the agreement between the Scottish Government and local authority umbrella body Cosla councils who missed their targets should have faced financial penalties, estimated at around £10 million.

However, ministers have so far refused to impose the sanctions pending discussions on how local authorities are to be judged on educational performance in future.

Mr Flanagan added: "The Scottish Government and Cosla can talk all they like about working to agree a new set of measures based on educational outcomes, but the fact of the matter is you cannot deliver outcomes without sufficient input - and that means investment to ensure there are sufficient numbers of teachers working with pupils in the classroom."

Douglas Chapman, education spokesman for Cosla, said local government was "completely focused" on tackling the attainment gap between rich and poor.

He said: "This gap has been present over the years and was just as stark at times when we had more teachers than we currently do.

"Cosla has been consistent in arguing we need to focus on the impact of education on all our young people and not statistics that mask the deep-seated relationship between poverty, disadvantage and poor attainment.

"There is not a council in the land that would want to reduce the number of teachers in schools if it could be avoided and the most recent statistics show where school rolls in primary are increasing so too is the number of teachers."

Mr Chapman said the overall increase in pupil-teacher ratios was "unavoidable" given the financial pressures faced by all local authorities.

A Scottish Government spokesman said ministers and councils had made a shared a commitment to maintain teacher numbers in line with pupil numbers for this financial year.

He said: "Discussions are underway with Cosla, local authorities, teaching unions, parent bodies and others on the best way to measure a broader range of educational outcomes, including teacher numbers as an important factor in the future. If these discussions do not reach a satisfactory agreement the existing commitment and financial agreements will remain in place.

"Our priority continues to be to maintain teacher numbers in line with pupil numbers, but we recognise that the UK Government's policy of financial austerity places Scottish Government and local government in a difficult position.

"In that context it is important that we both work together for children and young people and we will be engaging with Cosla, trade unions and parent bodies to reach agreement on how we best support teachers and teaching."