A lack of progress in national negotiations with Teachers led by the Scottish Government has led to concerns that there may be a black hole in the budget of the Education Department in Dundee. I have been advised that the figure may be near £500,000. The SNP's swingeing education cuts of £4.1 million for the forthcoming financial year may not be enough.
In the process of agreeing the budget settlement for local government, the SNP's Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, offered councils his government’s commitment to agree reductions in the terms and conditions of work of teachers by the end of January. Now that no progress has been made, the savings the city council assumed in arriving at its education budget will need to be revisited. Unfortunately, I think this means that the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce, will be looking out for more cuts.
Back in December, I made it clear that I thought that these assumptions were optimistic and the savings projected were unlikely to be realised in such a short time scale. This is another example of SNP mismanagement and unfortunately it will be the education of our children that will suffer as a result, because short term cuts often lead to long term damage.
Councillor Richard McCready said:
“I hope this budget shortfall won’t mean we will have more ill thought out schemes, such as the proposed relocation and downgrading of Law Nursery, being proposed piece by piece. Dundee deserves better.”
