I write to express our concerns over the impact the council budget is set to have on schools, children and teachers. There will be cuts of more than £4.5m from Renfrewshire's education budget and this will mean fewer teachers and everything that goes with that. This isn't efficiency, it is deep swingeing cuts that will mean larger class sizes, fewer subject choices, less specialist support, socia xclusion instead of inclusion, fewer books and pencils.
Renfrewshire secondary schools will have five or six fewer teachers next year. That is not efficiency, it's a cut that undermines any aspiration for improvement. If you drastically cut staff like this you can't expect the same level of service, never mind improvement. This isn't scaremongering, this is scary.
If you want to study Advanced Highers then you can't expect much choice. If you are in S6 at Gleniffer High this year you had a choice of five advanced highers. Next year's options are two (English and Maths) and maybe a third. Some schools are talking about ending music as a practical subject so the class size can go up to 30 instead of 20.
If teachers talk publicly about the cuts, like writing to the press to express their concerns over the impact the cuts will have on education and children, they are told this could be a disciplinary matter.
From a teacher's point of view, people were encouraged to come into teaching in the past few years with promises of more teaching jobs and employment once they completed their probation year. That's now being pulled away from them by these cuts and newly qualified teachers are left to wonder where, when and even if they will get work. I fear these newly qualified teachers who don't have permanent jobs will be cast adrift and left to float in a sea of unemployed teachers.
Ian McCrone, Secretary Renfrewshire EIS, 6 Clairmont Gardens, Glasgow.
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