First minister John Swinney today underlined the Scottish government’s opposition to any attempt to cut teacher numbers.
But a letter to councils from education secretary Jenny Gilruth shows the government will not now take a hardline approach to withdrawing funding from councils that reduce teacher numbers.
Mr Swinney made his comments when challenged to set out his position on teacher numbers in light of the controversial plans - first reported by Tes Scotland in February - to reduce them in Glasgow by 450 over three years.
He responded that cutting teacher numbers was incompatible with the government’s aim to close the “poverty-related attainment gap”.
Gilruth seeks to reassure councils over funding
However, in a letter to local authorities body Cosla today, seen by Tes Scotland, Ms Gilruth said that “in the event of teacher numbers not being maintained, and where mitigations are not fully accepted, funding will only be withheld from councils on a ‘per [full-time equivalent]’ basis”.
She added: “I hope this will provide reassurance that the risk of losing the totality of the additional funding for a small reduction in teacher numbers, which I know some councils have been concerned about, is removed.”
Ms Gilruth was “conscious that there will also be a limited number of exceptional circumstances at a local level that will impact on councils’ ability to maintain teacher numbers”, adding that the government would “continue to consider all reasonable additional mitigations that are put forward, on a case by case basis”
The education secretary added: “Ultimately, funding will be withheld where we do not think these additional mitigations are reasonable, but we will discuss this with any council in such a position so that we fully understand the circumstances before arriving at a decision.”
She had discussed the matter with the first minister and “instructed my officials to issue revised grant offer letters to all councils very shortly”.
Teacher numbers letter ‘impossible to fathom’
In response, EIS teaching union general secretary Andrea Bradley said it was ”impossible to fathom” how the letter to councils squared with a manifesto promise to increase teacher numbers.
Ms Bradley added: ”The Scottish government providing a workaround to the requirement to maintain teacher numbers is effectively greenlighting further education cuts by local authorities, whose budgets the Scottish government has been disproportionately cutting for years.
“There can be no doubt that this will make the teacher workload crisis even worse, and young people, particularly those with additional needs or who are disadvantaged by poverty, will miss out on valuable teacher time.”
Importance of teacher numbers to reducing attainment gap
At First Minister’s Questions this afternoon, Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy had asked Mr Swinney to make clear the government’s stance “on whether teacher numbers should be maintained, in light of the reported concerns of many...in Glasgow”.
Mr Swinney replied: “The government remains determined to close the poverty-related attainment gap and to reduce teacher workload, and I do not believe that those aims will be achieved by councils employing fewer teachers in our schools.”
Ms Duncan-Glancy said this was “cold comfort for teachers, parents and pupils in Glasgow because the reality is that his Scottish National Party and Green colleagues there are slashing teacher numbers, which impacts the poorest and most disadvantaged pupils the most”.
She added: “It is not the first time that that has happened on the first minister’s watch. As one young person said at the most recent rally against the [Glasgow] cuts, the first minister owes it to young people to intervene after his decision in the 2020 exams fiasco resulted in the downgrading of the poorest pupils.”
Ms Duncan-Glancy referred to MSPs’ vote on 15 May for the government to “intervene and protect job losses”.
“What exactly is the first minister’s government doing to deliver the will of Parliament, and when will the jobs be saved,” she asked.
Mr Swinney indicated that “those are matters for individual local authorities to take forward” and said that the government had already offered £145.5 million to local authorities to protect teacher numbers.
He later added: “I hope that our local government partners share that goal.”
The first minister found Ms Duncan-Glancy’s concerns “rather difficult to accept”, and added: “If the Labour Party had its budget proposals accepted in the city of Glasgow - £30 million cuts in education on Glasgow City Council - that could have meant the loss of up to 650 teachers.”
‘Another broken promise’
Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr recalled a government promise to increase teacher numbers across Scotland by 3,500 in the 2021-26 Parliament but said the latest data showed 250 fewer teachers than when that promise was made.
He criticised ministers for “another broken promise”, akin to those around “the [school] laptops, bikes and free meals”.
Mr Swinney accused the Tories of having “brass necks” and blamed them saying “two significant factors have undermined the public finances in the United Kingdom”: firstly, “rampant inflation”; and secondly, “mistakes that were made by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng in that ridiculous [September 2022] statement to the House of Commons”.
For the latest Scottish education news, analysis and features delivered directly to your inbox, sign up to Tes magazine’s The Week in Scotland newsletter
