Councillor Richard
McCready
29 September 2012
On Monday
evening at the City Council's Education Committee we considered the Education Department's Service Plan,
(the plan is found at page 4 of the pdf document. )There
was a very interesting exchange of views on this important and ambitious
document.
My colleague Laurie Bidwell worried that the resources might
not be there to deliver on these ambitious plans. We then saw the
benefit of having teacher representatives on the Education Committee when
Arthur Forrest spoke.
Mr Forrest spoke about the “extreme problems” in Dundee's schools trying to get supply teachers.
Mr Forrest spoke about the “extreme problems” in Dundee's schools trying to get supply teachers.
He pointed out
that often support for learning teachers who are employed to assist children
who need extra help can often be tasked with covering for other classes. This means that
the young people who require extra help and support go without appropriate
support.
Mr Forrest also
described how school management teams are often “fire-fighting” rather than
implementing changes. He told the
committee that:
“It's vital
that we are aware of the pressure on schools.”
This warning
from the “chalk-face” is very important to all of us who have the best
interests of education in the city at heart. The Director of
Education accepted that there were problems in terms of staffing and
highlighted that there were 56 teachers currently on maternity leave.
I am sure that
he was not suggesting that this was a problem. The provision
of maternity leave was a major step forward in terms of wokers' rights and is
something that I would defend.
I think that
behind the statistics is the fact that perhaps not all of the jobs which have
been declared to be redundant in the recent rounds of early retirement and
voluntary redundancies were actually redundant.
It is important
that the Education Department keeps a close eye on this and ensures that every
school in Dundee has the resources it requires to
deliver the service we expect. There is no
point in asking teachers to deliver an ambitious development plan if they are
being asked to do so with one hand, metaphorically, tied behind their back.
I was also interested to hear that the Education Department has a special
meeting to look at budget setting which is described as the “Star Chamber”. I was impressed
that the SNP Administration in the city were happy to allow the use of this
term first used by King Edward II of England.
Historians will
be aware that this is the Edward who was sent “homewards tae think again”