The education secretary has held back funds earmarked for teacher numbers because some councils are making cuts.
By Bill Heaney
The Scottish government has withheld £145.5m in funding to all councils, including West Dunbartonshire, because of a row over teacher numbers.
It says the money has been earmarked to maintain teacher jobs, but local government body Cosla disagrees with the ringfencing, which means there’s a ban of switching funds from one part of the service to another.
Most Scottish councils are looking at education cuts – including proposals to reduce learning hours, school buses, and classroom assistants – but only some have reduced teacher numbers.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth told BBC Scotland that she has not allowed the funding to go to councils as a result – but councils say this has forced them to make deeper cuts to other education services.
Cosla told the BBC that ringfencing spending on teachers was not the best way to protect pupil attainment and that the stalemate is making things worse.
In recent months, Ms Gilruth has warned councils that she would act if they cut teacher numbers.
Asked if she was calling councils’ bluff, Ms Gilruth told the BBC: “I have not allowed that funding to flow out the door.
“This year we tried to get to a resolution with Cosla whereby they would agree in advance to the grant conditions attached to this funding – they would agree to maintain their teacher numbers.
“Cosla refused to do that unfortunately – back in February actually.
“So since that time we’ve been working with them to try to get a mechanism whereby we can get this funding out the door. We’ve not yet been able to arrive at that”.
Ms Gilruth acknowledged that this was a “challenging time for local authorities”, but added: “Fundamentally, protecting teacher numbers is a really important choice I think politically to make, because it protects outcomes for our children and young people.”
One of the less high-profile cuts to school services has been to school buses.
West Dunbartonshire Council made a ham-fisted attempt to withdraw free travel passes from pupils in outlying areas including Dumbarton West End, Renton, Alexandria, Vale of Leven, Haldane and Milton.
The Labour administration who had initially been in favour of the plan dropped it hastily when a loophole was found to give them a way round this.
The Council plan was exposed when their walking to school plan showed they hadn’t a clue about routes pupils might take, which included walking along the dangerous A82 from Milton to Bellsmyre and Silverton and from Renton through the Vale of Leven industrial estate.
The Labour councillors have now resigned en masse from running the local authority after going in the huff when they failed to succeed in having their choice for the Provostship defeated.