A Dundee teachers’ union official expressed deep concern that education provision in the city will be “set back 40 years” as a result of the SNP administration’s proposed budget cuts.
Savings worth £4 million have been identified from the city’s schools as part of total cuts of £14.6 million, with a number of senior teaching posts being removed from primary and secondary schools.
SNP administration leader Ken Guild said this would leave a management structure in Dundee schools very much in line with the majority of councils in Scotland, but the city’s teachers are taking a much less relaxed view of the change.
Danny McDonald, spokesman for the EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland) teaching union, said the cuts would set the education service back 40 years.
Speaking after detailed discussions between Dundee teachers’ leaders and education department officials, he said, “We were made aware of the scope of the £4 million of education cuts just before Christmas, but it is only in the last few days that detailed discussions of the cuts have taken place.
“The first thing we would point to is that there is no sustainable educational argument made for any of the key proposals. In 2001 Dundee City Council signed up to an agreement entitled A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century.
“It is quite preposterous to argue now, as the council is doing, that we should return to a promoted post allocation dating from 1972 by removing 15 depute head posts in primary schools.”
The post-holders will have taken major responsibilities in schools for the welfare and discipline of pupils, for covering for absent colleagues and for driving forward major classroom initiatives such as Curriculum for Excellence.
“In some of the most deprived and challenging areas of the city this will mean that when the head-teacher is out of school on council or other business there will be no-one free to take responsibility for discipline, emergencies, class cover or child protection matters. Parents might view this as reckless,” he said.
“In secondary schools 10 depute posts and 21 guidance posts are set to go. Six years ago the current director of education chaired a group which recommended that each secondary school would need a minimum of four depute heads and a business manager.
“We now face the prospect of some schools being reduced to two depute heads and a business manager. In other authorities which have followed this pattern, significant compensatory mechanisms have been put into place with the creation of faculty heads with increased responsibilities, time and salaries.
“There is no comparable mechanism in place in the Dundee proposals. Again, these post-holders would typically have had responsibility for major initiatives, for the welfare of pupils and for the promotion of better behaviour and better learning.”
He believed some of the proposals seemed “a leap in the dark,” and his union was unclear as to the evidence that suggested that significant savings can be found in the absence cover budget.
He continued, “While the proposal to create a city campus for senior pupils to study Advanced Highers in minority subjects is imaginative it is by no means certain that pupils, parents and staff will buy into such an arrangement or that the intended savings will materialise.”
Mr McDonald said the EIS will be taking soundings from members. He concluded, “These are hard times in the education sector and we will be seeking the views of our members on a range of issues-not least the proposed cuts.
“The EIS will now have to decide how we take forward our arguments on a number of fronts.”