Council Avoid Answering the Questions I Have Been Asking About Teacher Numbers

Late on Monday afternoon, I was notified that the item from the Agenda of the Meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee - 'Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme for Teaching Staff and Associated Professionals' had been withdrawn. 


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.

A Gamble with the Future of our Children?

At the Policy and Resources Committee tonight, Councillors are being asked to approve a new round of enhanced early retirement for Teachers in Dundee schools. 


Judging by the interest in previous rounds of early retirements, there may well be be many inquiries from serving teachers about taking up this new offer. 


But can we afford to reduce our number of serving teachers any further?


Since this time last year we know that there are 99 fewer teachers working in our schools. The Director of Education's comments in the Courier last week indicate that he thinks there is scope for a further reduction in teacher numbers as we have a favourable pupil teacher ratio compared with other councils in urban areas.


Additionally, the Scottish Government have threatened financial penalties if teacher numbers were not maintained year by year by local authorities.


So how much lower does Councillor Ken Guild (Leader of the Council and Convener of the Finance and General Purposes Committee) think teacher numbers can fall without incurring financial penalties?


And how much lower does Councillor Liz Fordyce (Convener of the Education Committee) think teacher numbers can fall without damaging attainment and achievement in our schools?


I think we need reassuring answers to these questions before we can take a decision to approve this new round of early retirement of teachers. Anything less would I think be a gamble with the future of our children.

Some Questions on Teacher Posts in Dundee for Councillor Fordyce

Returning to the issue of 99 fewer teachers in Dundee, I challenge SNP Education Convener Liz Fordyce to answer a series of related questions.


While she pretends that the number of teachers we employ in our city doesn't make a difference to the quality of education we provide, her own SNP government in Holyrood has been urging and funding councils to maintain teacher numbers.

In October 2010 the Government's Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mike Russell said:

 "To avoid further shrinkage of our teacher workforce, we need local authorities to do what they can not to allow further drops in teacher numbers.  […]  We need local authorities not to look on each retiring teacher as an opportunity to save money, but to recruit recently qualified teachers." 
(Scottish Parliament Education, Lifelong Learning & Culture Committee 2010 b)

Does Councillor Fordyce think that Mike Russell is misguided in encouraging and financing the maintenance of our teacher workforce?

"In November 2010 the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) agreed to:

• ensure that are enough vacancies as there are teachers completing their probationary year in June 2011
• to reduce teacher unemployment
• to provide an extra £15m in the local government settlement for teacher employment (Swinney 2010)

(Quoted in briefing on Teacher Numbers from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre)

Does Councillor Fordyce think that the Council will be financially penalised by the Scottish Government for reducing the number of its teachers despite receiving more grant to stabilise teacher numbers?

On the agenda of the Policy and Resources Committee of the Council meeting next Monday is a proposal to renew the Council's scheme to provide financial incentives to encourage the early retirement of more of our teachers. 

Is the Education Convener prepared to commit to filling the posts of retiring teachers in Dundee with a recently qualified teacher?

If not, it seems likely that this  new scheme will have the effect of further reducing the number of teachers in our schools in Dundee.

99 Fewer Teachers in Dundee Schools

This autumn there are 99 fewer teachers working in our schools in the city compared with 2010. 

In the last twelve months Dundee City Council has the unenviable reputation of being responsible one of the largest reductions in its teaching workforce compared with the other councils in Scotland. 

Figures contained in a response to a Freedom of Information Request have revealed that the budgeted teacher numbers are 1393 teachers 2011/12 compared with 1492.2 teacher posts in 2010/11. The effect of this reduction will be felt in every school in Dundee.

This performance is not what the SNP promised at the May 2011 elections to the Scottish Parliament. 

In their Teachers' Manifesto May 2011, they committed to:

• 'Bring stability to teacher numbers by ensuring councils stick to the agreed minimum number of posts.
• Ensure there are enough posts for every post-probationer and enough additional positions to reduce teacher unemployment'

 A reduction of 99 posts is by no stretch of the English language stability.

 You can't reduce the number of teachers in our schools by 99 posts or 6.6% without having a negative effect. Dundee deserves better.

Sharp Reduction in Employment of Post Probationary Teachers

New statistics released by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) (see table) indicate a further reduction in the numbers of post-probationary teachers gaining permanent jobs in Scotland.

More specifically, the percentage of probationary staff who have obtained full time permanent posts has now fallen to just 16.1 per cent - a record low and it means that fewer than 1 in 6 new teachers get a full time permanent job. Also over a quarter of probationary teachers now have no teaching job at all.

These figures come only a week after the number of employed teachers in Scotland fell by another 800 – down by over 3000 since the SNP came to power - and the pupil teacher ratio rose again to 1 teacher to 13.3 pupils.

These figures demonstrate the damage being done to Scottish education and the careers of newly qualified teachers by the SNP's mismanagement of Scottish education. Highly trained and well-qualified teachers are being treated as a casualised workforce, obliged to look for work on a weekly or daily basis. Because the SNP has broken their promises on teacher numbers and class sizes, very few newly qualified teachers are obtaining permanent or even temporary employment.