Commenting on Increasing Class Sizes in Dundee Primary Schools

I know parents and carers in Dundee will be concerned by the news that class sizes in Dundee are continuing to increase and the number of teachers we employ has declined significantly. They know that the quality of the education their children receive depends on the expertise and number of teachers in local schools.

The SNP's record of running Education in Dundee is imposing one cut after another in the number of teachers in our schools. In the census in September 2010 there were 1511 teachers in post and in September 2015 this was down to 1409. This loss of over 100 posts represents the equivalent of more than two teachers in each of the primary and secondary school in the city. We can't go on like this cutting the schools' budget year after year and not expect that this will undermine the attainment and achievement of our children.

Strangely when the City Council was provided with the opportunity to bid for extra millions of pounds to help close the attainment gap in our city, they have apparently declined the opportunity to employ more teachers to reduce class sizes, especially in the early years.

For the second year running, the Education Convener, Councillor Stewart Hunter is presiding over the worst record in Scotland for the proportion of pupils who are taught in class sizes of 18 or fewer in P1-3 classes in our Primary Schools.

The plain fact is that the cash the city has received from Scottish Government has been reduced year after year and the Council Tax has been frozen. While George Osborne and the UK Government has imposed significant cuts in the value of their annual block grant to the Scottish Government, the SNP government in Holyrood must also accept responsibility for imposing cuts in our schools by avoiding using the powers they possessed to increase the rate of income tax and failing to bring in a new system of local government funding to replace the Council Tax.

Declining Teacher Numbers and Increasing Pupil - Teacher Ratios in Dundee

On Tuesday 7 December, the Scottish Government published their Statistical Bulletin: 

Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No 2 2011 Edition 7 December 2011

The Bulletin shows the number of primary school teachers in Dundee is now at its lowest level since 2005. The numbers fell again in the last year to 639 at the census point.

In secondary schools, the number of teachers in Dundee is also at its lowest level since 2005. The numbers decreased over the last year to 716 at the census point.

The tables showing Pupil/Teacher ratios also show a noticeable adverse increase from 11.7 pupils to 1 teacher in 2009 to 12.1 pupils to 1 teacher in 2011.

Having promised the earth four and a half years ago, the SNP Government in Holyrood still refuses to face up to the truth that they have not reduced average class sizes.

They, and their SNP controlled Council in Dundee, are responsible for the decline in teacher numbers and an adverse rise in the pupil/teacher ratios in our City.

The SNP made unprecedented promises about improvements in education, none of which have ever been properly or fully funded.

In Dundee the Education Convener, Councillor Liz Fordyce, claims her cuts haven't removed teachers from the classroom but the growth in the number of pupils to each teacher (the Pupil / Teacher ratio)  paints a different picture.

We can't go on reducing the number of teachers in our schools in Dundee without having a negative effect on the attainment and achievement of our pupils. Dundee deserves better.

The Pupil - Teacher ratios have been extracted from from Table 2.2 on page 9 of the Statistical Bulletin

The comparative information on teacher numbers is taken from tables in the supplementary datasets which were also released on Wednesday 7 December 2011 by the Scottish Government.

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.