Scotland’s biggest teaching union has written to first minister John Swinney, urging him to intervene over local authority education cuts.
The letter was sent after it emerged that Falkirk was pressing ahead with plans to shorten the learning week for pupils and to reduce teaching posts; this came on the back of an ongoing dispute over Glasgow’s plans to cut 450 teaching posts by 2027.
In Falkirk, it has been confirmed that on Thursday 3 October councillors will be asked about proposals to cut the length of the learning week for primary pupils by 10 per cent (from 25 to 22.5 hours) and for secondary pupils by 7 per cent (from 26.6 to 24.75 hours).
Shortening school week to save millions
The council says this “asymmetric model”, involving shorter school days each Friday, will save more than £6.3 million a year; it points to potential benefits such as “improved wellbeing for both pupils and teachers, reduced fatigue, and enhanced use of time for professional development on Friday afternoons”.
However, the EIS says the plans would have “serious consequences” for a council where 78 teaching posts have been cut in recent years and 91 more would ultimately go under the new plans.
In May, after Falkirk’s plans for the school week first emerged, the government said any plans to cut learning hours “would not be acceptable”.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley warned that this came after, under Glasgow’s plans, 172 teaching posts had already gone from the start of 2024-25, out of the 450 posts eventually due to go.
She fears that other councils might follow suit, as “we can be sure that the remaining 31 local authorities are observing the Glasgow scenario with close interest”.
Ms Bradley said the Falkirk plans “would be hugely damaging for young people and for teachers alike”, adding: “Young people in Falkirk would be placed at a significant disadvantage compared with their peers in schools in other areas of the country, with more than a year of schooling lost in total over the course of their school career.”
Cuts hit poorer areas ‘particularly hard’
The effects would hit particularly hard in an authority such as Falkirk, said Ms Bradley, “where levels of poverty and deprivation are high, and the poverty-related attainment gap remains a significant challenge”.
In a statement to coincide with the publication of a report on the plans to be considered on 3 October, Falkirk Council education director Jon Reid said that, if approved, the council would “closely monitor the impact of the changes on pupil attainment, wellbeing and educational outcomes” and that a “formal review process would be implemented to ensure any issues are addressed promptly”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said it was “concerned at any suggestion of cuts to learning hours and is clear that this would not be acceptable”, adding: “Ministers are keen to come to a voluntary agreement with local government on protecting learning hours, but if no agreement is reached, we will use regulations to prescribe the number of hours made available.”
The spokesperson also said “we would strongly encourage any council planning teacher cuts to reconsider” and that education secretary Jenny Gilruth “has been clear that the challenges faced by our schools post-pandemic will not be solved with fewer teachers in Scotland’s schools”.
For the latest in Scottish education delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for Tes’ The Week in Scotland newsletter
