Teachers jobs to go over cash crisis

Councils say schools are laying off staff because of funding problems

Dozens of teachers across the north-east of England are expected to be told their jobs are at risk on Monday.

According to the government, cash shortages and falling pupil numbers means cutbacks have been unavoidable.

There will be job losses in Newcastle, Gateshead, Durham, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Northumberland and Sunderland, but the full picture is not yet known.

It is believed eight jobs will be going in Newcastle, and Howard Brown, the NUT Secretary for Sunderland, said more will go on Wearside and other areas are also expected to be higher.

Class sizes

Mr Brown said: "The government is right when they say they are putting more money into education, but they are not putting it into schools.

"What they need to do is look at the schools' budget and see what is happening in schools.

"The government keep ring-fencing money. For instance, certain schools have something called a neighbourhood regeneration fund.

"The money cannot be used to pay for schools teachers. It can be used to give children prizes for going to school... but it can't be used to pay for teachers' salaries.

"You could have a situation where a schools is making teachers redundant, but can still give pupils' prizes for attending."

Mr Brown said he expected about 10 redundancies on Wearside but warned the job losses would be higher as he believed teachers would not be replaced as they leave.

He added: "This means class sizes will go up, children will get less individual attention and there will be less money for books and equipment.

"Therefore the education for the children generally will go down."