I think this is because the Administration are very reluctant to provide public answers to the questions I have been asking about maintaining teacher numbers in Dundee Schools and the financial penalties if teacher numbers are not maintained.
Councillor Guild (Leader of the Administration of the Council) has been attending Leaders' Meetings at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). As part of the budgetary settlement, Councillor Guild has agreed to accept the imposition of economic sanctions from the Scottish Government if teacher numbers are not maintained in return for some additional cash from the government. But what sanctions are these and in what circumstances will they be applied?
If Councillor Guild can't declare what these will be, we would have been in danger of making a decision last night which would later not have been honoured. This would have disappointed teachers who had been encouraged to apply for something that might not really be available.
Councillor Guild needs to give the Council the full facts before we can be confident that we have a viable early retirement scheme for teachers to approve.
His Education Convener, Councillor Fordyce also needs to be clear about what level of pupil teacher ratio she wants to protect in Dundee Schools.
Clearly they were both not prepared to provide any answers on Monday night.
Dundee parents and carers as well as Councillors deserve straight answers to these questions that will affect the schools and nurseries that their children are attending.
