For some time now Scottish local authorities have been warning that education budgets cannot be protected from cuts like they were in the past.
After this week, it seems clear that those dire predictions were not an empty gesture.
Details of councils’ budget proposals have started filtering through - and little appears off the table in the frantic search for savings.
There has been widespread consternation at the news that Glasgow and North Ayrshire would seek to cut teacher numbers - despite the Scottish government’s promise that they would be protected - yet they are unlikely to be alone in proposing this.
Plan to cut pupil learning hours
Meanwhile, another hugely controversial idea has risen from the grave: cutting pupils’ learning hours. This was proposed in parts of Scotland around five years ago, but plans to shorten the school week foundered in the face of fierce opposition.
Now, it has emerged that a proposal in Falkirk to introduce an “asymmetric week” - meaning an end to school each Friday lunchtime - does not mean rearranging the current amount of learning hours; instead, these would be reduced.
At a meeting next Wednesday, Falkirk councillors will weigh up the proposal to reduce weekly primary hours from 25 to 22.5 hours per week (down 10 per cent); in secondary, the reduction would be from 26.6 to 24.75 hours (down 7 per cent) per week.
Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, told Tes Scotland: “As more and more local authorities reveal their budget plans, it is becoming increasingly clear that education provision across Scotland is being targeted for further deep and damaging cuts to resources, provision and staffing.
“Despite the Scottish government commitments to maintain teacher numbers and to protect the length of the pupil week, both these areas are scheduled for cuts in local authority areas across the country.”
She added: “Scottish education has already been greatly impacted by cuts to funding, resources and staffing over the past decade, and the fact is that there is nothing left to give.”
‘Unimaginable workload burdens’
The EIS executive committee met today and, Ms Bradley said, heard reports about “the worrying state of local authority finance and the planned cuts to teacher numbers and education provision throughout Scotland”.
With teachers “already facing previously unimaginable workload burdens as a result of previous cuts...the picture becoming even more bleak will push many staff over the edge”, fears Ms Bradley.
Meanwhile, Mike Corbett, Scotland official for the NASUWT teaching union, described the type of proposals to emerge this week as “deeply disappointing”.
However, he stressed that the blame could not be fully put at the door of local authorities.
“Many have been put in an invidious position by a lack of proper funding from the Scottish government, which should be addressed as a matter of urgency,” he said.
Long-simmering tension between local and national government overstretched finances is now approaching something more akin to all-out combat.
Extra funding to councils
Last week, councils declared a “dispute” with the Scottish government over funding, which stems in large part from first minister Humza Yousaf’s promise at the SNP conference in October that council tax would be frozen.
However, councils are also angry about education secretary Jenny Gilruth’s attempts to force them to protect teacher numbers, and that this would lead to cuts elsewhere.
Ms Gilruth argues that shared goals such as closing the attainment gap cannot be realised if teacher numbers fall.
Yesterday, it emerged that finance secretary Shona Robison had offered an extra £62.7 million to councils; it remains to be seen if it will break the deadlock over council tax. Ms Robison also gave the green light to the creation of an “education assurance board”, which would encourage dialogue on teacher numbers.
Today, the Daily Record reported that the Scottish government would refuse to pass on Westminster cash to local authorities who refuse to implement a council tax freeze.
Then, late this afternoon, local authorities’ body Cosla issued a statement from resources spokesperson Katie Hagmann, who said: “Council leaders were absolutely clear today that it is not appropriate for Scottish government ministers to interfere in the democratic decision making of councils.”
One council leader was reported saying yesterday that, in the current climate, Scotland could be facing “strikes and school closures again”, less than a year after a teacher pay deal ended months of industrial action.
Risk to school staff’s safety
Meanwhile, as this conflict between councils and government continued, Ms Bradley was today surveying evidence of proposed local authority cuts that are “absolutely counter to the Scottish government’s stated commitments to protect teacher numbers and pupils’ learning entitlement”.
She also saw a “risk of local authority employers breaching their duties as employers to protect the health and safety of their staff”, pointing to “violent, aggressive and distressed behaviour [that] is already posing a serious risk...much of this driven by staff shortages”.
Stuart Hunter, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, was critical of any situation - in Glasgow or elsewhere - in which local and national government “flex their muscles in a playground standoff”, with teachers and pupils “weaponised”.
“Teachers are already past breaking point because of a toxic workload,” said Mr Hunter. “To reduce the number of teachers will only exacerbate an already failing system that requires considerable amounts of free overtime to ensure that our children are given the best education possible.”
He added: “These antics will only see the attainment gap widen to the detriment of our students and impact on their future life choices.”
Henry Hepburn is Scotland editor at Tes. He tweets @Henry_Hepburn
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