Councils ‘totally disinterested’ in teacher numbers stat

Scottish councils umbrella body COSLA has hit back at claims some local authorities have failed to maintain numbers of teachers in their area.

Statistics released today show there 50,717 full time equivalent teachers in Scotland, roughly the same as last year, but ten councils have fewer, breaking an agreement with the Scottish Government which committed councils to maintaining teacher numbers in return for a share of £51M in additional funding.

The annual Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication records numbers of schools, pupils and teachers on a single day every year.

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Class sizes are now at their highest level since the SNP came to power, but when the teacher numbers pledge was introduced in February COSLA published a report suggesting it wouldn’t affect attainment.

A COSLA spokesman said:  “The simple truth is that no council has failed on education that could only happen if children had been let down in some way and there is absolutely no suggestion of that having happened in any council area.  What has failed, as it has in other areas of public service, is a crazy, simplistic, ill thought through policy.

“Whatever way you dress it up not hitting an arbitrary figure on a random day cannot be the way forward for education in Scotland.  We have to be better than that.

“At COSLA we are totally disinterested in these numbers which are nothing more than a snapshot in time which tells us nothing about the quality of education. It is becoming increasingly embarrassing that we continue to focus so hard on delivering a target which is so educationally irrelevant.”

Teaching union the EIS welcomed the news teacher numbers had been maintained, but said the breaches in the agreement meant further action was needed.

General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “This confirms the need for a nationally agreed minimum staffing standard to ensure consistent levels of provision across Scotland. The number of teachers employed in the early years is continuing to decline, with significant implications for young children’s access to a teacher in nursery schools and classes.”

A coalition of children’s charities also warned councils against cutting provision for pupils with additional support needs, after today’s figures showed around a quarter of Scotland’s pupils were recorded as having ASN.

A spokesman for the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition said cuts in specialist teachers could lead to local authorities breaching their legal obligations to identify and provide for the additional support needs of their pupils.

“Local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the necessary services to these young people due to budget cuts. Yet, we would warn them against cutting vital services to those with ASN when they set their budgets as we are well-aware of the impacts of failing to address the needs of this vulnerable group,” he said.