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Dundee teacher cuts branded ‘mad’ as council prepares to set budget

Budget proposals published this week confirmed plans to axe 32 full-time teachers across the city’s primary and secondary schools.

By Laura Devlin

February 28 2024, 2:40pm

It's estimated the reduction will save the council around £1.9m in the upcoming financial year. Image: Steve Brown/DC Thomson.

Cost-cutting plans to slash teacher numbers in Dundee have been branded “mad” by opposition councillors.

The local authority’s budget proposals, published earlier this week, confirmed plans to axe 32 full-time teachers across the city’s primary and secondary schools.

It’s also proposed the allocation of newly qualified teachers to primary schools will increase from 0.6 full time equivalent (FTE) to 0.7.

This equates to an approximate saving of 4.7 FTE based on projected pupil rolls.

It’s estimated the reduction will save the council around £1.9m in the upcoming financial year.

These savings have been identified by officers in the council’s Children and Families Service, rather than the SNP administration.

But the Liberal Democrat group on Dundee City Council have claimed the move is unnecessary due to a funding windfall the local authority is set to receive.

‘It seems rather mad’

Broughty Ferry councillor Craig Duncan said: “We really question how sensible the teaching cuts are because last week the SNP government announced an extra £62.7m funding for local government.

“Based on grant aided expenditure calculations and projections, Dundee City Council is likely to receive around £1.7 million that until last week it was not expecting and does not figure in the council budget calculations.

Councillor Craig Duncan has come out against cuts to teacher numbers. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson.

“It seems rather mad to axe over 32 teaching posts one week to save £1.9 million then the next week receive £1.7 million you had not budgeted for and simply put that money into the general reserve.”

Poverty related attainment gap

Proposals to cut the number of teaching posts in Dundee come as new figures show the poverty related attainment gap in the city is wider than it was seven years ago.

A report which will go before the children, families, and communities committee on Monday details:

In 2022/23, the gap between the most and least deprived pupils achieving their expected level in literacy was 19.9%. This is up from 16.9% in 2016/17
In 2022/23, the gap between the most and least deprived pupils achieving their expected level in numeracy was 16.3%. This is up from 10.9% in 2016/17.

A final decision on the budget will be made at a meeting on Thursday.