WENDY HITS OUT AT TERRIBLE TOLL ON TEACHERS

- 210 Teachers axed in Renfrewshire –

Wendy Alexander said:

“210 Teachers have been axed in Renfrewshire in the 2 years since the SNP came to power in Edinburgh and Renfrewshire.

Renfrewshire schools now have the worst pupil-teacher ratio in the whole of Scotland. Renfrewshire council should hang their heads in shame for taking Renfrewshire to the very bottom of the class in the whole of Scotland.

Rising pupil teachers ratios up from 13.5 in Renfrewshire to 14.8 – shows the real problem is not fewer pupils – but cuts in teachers.

Today we now have 2089 teachers gone from Scottish classrooms – it is a cause of shame that 210 of those have gone from Renfrewshire. This shows the situation in Renfrewshire is much worse than in the rest of the country. Renfrewshire has 3.2% of the Scottish population. If we had lost teachers at the same rate as the rest of Scotland just 67 would have gone – instead Renfrewshire has cut teachers more than 3 times as fast as the rest of the country.

When the council cut over £10.6 million from the education budget over the last 2 years I said it would damage schools. It is sad that today we see the proof that those cuts are so much deeper here than the rest if Scotland.

So we now know Renfrewshire has been axing teachers at a faster rate for the last 2 years than any other council in Scotland. Renfrewshire has the 2nd largest drop in teachers of anywhere in Scotland after Glasgow (which is 3 times the size of Renfrewshire). Renfrewshire has axed more teachers than Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and North Lanarkshire. I have long campaigned to stop the SNP education cuts in Renfrewshire and these appalling figures only convince me to work with pupils, parents, teachers and councillors to step up our opposition to these cuts.”