Fife Council Leader David Ross has been left “bemused” by a leading teaching union official over his remarks about “the unkindest” of cuts to the education budget.
David Farmer, publicity officer for the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) issued a scathing statement saying the union still had a number of concerns about budgetary proposals, as Fife Council gears up to delivering its budget.
Claiming the consultation had not been as transparent as previous years, Mr Farmer slammed cuts in the Early Years service, claiming children would have more limited access to a teacher in nursery.
He added that union members would face major changes in conditions.
He was also critical of what he said would be £500,000 of cuts to the music service over the next three years, which would effectively sound its death knell.
Lauding the service’s nurturing of young talent, which is evident at musical events, he added: “Substituting the grey of austerity for the colour which such events and the realisation of musical talent can bring is perhaps the unkindest of cuts.”
The threat to free individual music tuition prompted one Fife mother to start an online petition, which attracted more than 4,000 signatures over the weekend.
Morag Lonergan said she was amazed by the “phenomenal” number of backers.
“It is obvious people feel very strongly,” said the mother of Ladybank Primary pupil Joe and Bell Baxter pupil Tom, who are both studying piano.
Mr Ross, however, said the local authority had met all the main teaching unions including the EIS to discuss the budget: “and they have all been broadly supportive of our proposals”.
“These proposals include maintaining teacher numbers, rejecting a cut in primary school hours, rejecting an increase in class sizes and rejecting the creation of a trust to run education in Fife,” he said.
“We will be maintaining a significant investment in Early Years, which has been one of our priorities over the last four years.
“The draft budget does propose some savings in Early Years, but we are still looking to see if we can avoid making these savings.”
He also refuted claims the council was planning to cut the music service budget by £500,000, saying it was proposing to “save” £100,000 next year, mainly through increasing fees for extra-curricular tuition.
“But we have rejected a proposal from officers that we stop the service, which would have saved over £1 million,” he added.
“I have made it clear to all our trade unions that if there is anything in the budget proposals they want to discuss or issues they want to raise, they only have to pick up the phone.”