Education policy 'too inflexible'

Education leaders in Fife have been accused of being too inflexible over teacher numbers in primary schools.

It follows concern from parents that some schools in Crail and Pittenweem would lose teachers because of a dip in the number of pupils on the roll.

North East Fife MSP Iain Smith has urged the council to review its policy for cases where the drop in numbers is expected to be only temporary.

He also accused the SNP of providing no money to reduce class sizes.

He said: "I recognise that there needs to be a policy for allocating teachers to ensure fairness to all, but the present one is too inflexible to take account of the specific needs of rural schools. I hope that Fife Council will now review it.

"Parents are understandably concerned about the increase in class sizes and the number of children being taught in composite classes. They were expecting class sizes to be cut, in line with the SNP Government's manifesto commitment.

"However, the truth is that the SNP has not provided Scottish councils with a single extra penny to achieve these reductions".

The Scottish Government insisted funding has been increased for schools.

A spokesman said: "We have increased funding to local government by more than 13% over the next three years, with the concordat providing £34.9bn. For each of those three years, we are also spending a higher percentage of our overall budget on local government than the last administration's final year in office.

"Alongside this increase in resources, we've enabled local authorities - for the first time - to retain all the efficiency savings they make. We've also devolved to them significant flexibility in terms of how they spend their resources".

Cllr Douglas Chapman, Fife Council, said: "Fife Council has already received £3.3m from the Scottish Government to help us create the space in schools to introduce smaller class sizes. We are currently in discussion with the Lib Dem group about investing more than the £3.3m given to us by the Scottish Government.

"If Mr Smith is signalling that the Lib Dems will be supporting the SNP proposals to increase spending to reduce class sizes at next week's Policy, Finance and Asset Management then every SNP councillor would be very happy to receive that support."

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