Relentless Education Cuts across Edinburgh
Thu 26th Nov 2009
Once again, the City of Edinburgh Council is making cuts to its overall budget in the next financial year (2010/11) and has announced that all city schools will face cuts.
Over the past two financial years (2008/9 and 2009/10), Primary schools have already had to make a 1.5% cut to their budgets, but the council is now proposing an additional 2.5% cut year on year for the next three years. The cumulative effect of this will mean a cut of 9% in 2012/13.
Schools in Scotland are in the process of implementing a brand new national curriculum (Curriculum for Excellence) and these cuts will undoubtedly have further worrying implications for staff time and resources. Parents have also informed me that they are being asked to donate jotters and pencils in some schools as the budget cannot provide for these necessity. Basic school running costs are also under pressure such as toilet repairs and heating.
Head teachers across the city have been asked by the council to consider where they could make these savings to school budgets. In the last few days, the Edinburgh Primary School Head teachers' Association has issued a response to the council, in which they state "members cannot endorse any further reductions in individual schools' budgets".
The only way that this proposed cut can be avoided or reduced is if Councillors are made aware of the strength of feeling there is on this matter. I urge you to register your concern with local councillors and MSPs as soon as possible by writing, emailing and visiting their surgeries.
I put the following motion down in Parliament this week expressing firm opposition to this next round of proposed cuts and I hope it gathers wide-ranging support from MSPs:
S3M-05287 George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): Relentless Education Cuts across Edinburgh - That the Parliament supports parents, teachers and pupils across Edinburgh in their opposition to further school budget cuts to be implemented by the City of Edinburgh Council; considers the strain that last year's 1.5% cut placed on school resources and staff; is strongly opposed to a further 2.5% cut year-on-year for the next three years; sees this as a complete failure by the SNP/Liberal Democrat administration to manage its budget and is dismayed that it is allowing children's education to suffer as a direct result of this; views that the cumulative effect of this will mean a cut of 9% in 2012-13; considers that head teachers are already struggling to meet basic school running costs such as heating and toilet repairs; is aware of the strength of feeling among communities and teachers, many of whom could lose their jobs to balance budgets; further considers that teacher unemployment is at an all-time high in Scotland while class sizes have reached 32 in some schools; believes that further cuts will only compound the problem and further adversely affect the standard and quality of children's education; believes that the Scottish Government's lack of intervention and action on this issue shows that its priorities are totally wrong, particularly when it invests so much time and money in making a case for separation from the rest of the United Kingdom instead of investing in Scotland's children's education; thinks that this, combined with its failure to build or refurbish one single school since May 2007, shows a total lack of commitment to improving education, and demands that the SNP/Liberal Democrat administration and the Scottish Government come together and resolve the funding crisis that is believed to be destroying education across the city.
Please get in touch with your local representative to support our campaign to stop these cuts and ensure the SNP led council and Government start putting our children's education first.
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