COUNCIL LEADER OVERSTATES FIGURES TO JUSTIFY TEACHER CUTS

- Teacher numbers falling faster than pupil numbers -

On more than one occasion Renfrewshire’s SNP Council leader, Derek McKay, has mistakenly overstated to the press how many school pupils have been lost.

He has claimed there are around 1000 less pupils in Renfrewshire this school year (08/09) compared to last (07/08). In fact, figures provided by Scottish Parliament Research Services, and now confirmed by Renfrewshire Council themselves, put that number closer to 430 fewer pupils.

Local politician Wendy Alexander hit out:

“This latest blunder by Renfrewshire Council is inexcusable and completely misleads the public.

The SNP in Renfrewshire used the false claims on falling rolls to justify the huge loss of 122 teachers this year.

With the latest Government statistics revealing that Renfrewshire now has the worst pupil teacher ratios in secondary schools of any authority in Scotland, that pupil teacher ratios are on the rise and with more teacher cuts to come, the SNP-led Council have nowhere to hide.

Falling rolls are nothing new. School rolls in Renfrewshire have been falling for the past decade. But the drop in pupil numbers from 2007 to 2008 is just 1.8% whilst teacher numbers have fallen by a whopping 6.7%. So the real difference between Labour and the SNP is that Labour raised teacher numbers despite falling school rolls and the SNP are cutting them.”

SNP Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop has said that “sufficient funding has been provided to local government to maintain teacher numbers at 2007 levels which, at a time of falling rolls, provides headroom to make progress…” on reducing class sizes. This runs in complete contradiction to Renfrewshire Council’s argument that falling school rolls require fewer teachers.