Over 100 Teachers and Classroom Assistants will lose Jobs as a result of Schools Budget Crisis (Leeds Liberal Democrats)

Leeds Liberal Democrats <info@leedslibdems.org.uk>

Over 100 Teachers and Classroom Assistants will lose Jobs as a result of Schools Budget Crisis

June 25, 2003 12:00 AM

Councillor Mark Harris, Leader of the Opposition Liberal Democrat Group on Leeds City Council, is this afternoon calling on all Leeds City Councillors to condemn central Government's failure to properly fund education in Leeds. Preliminary results from a questionnaire sent to all secondary and primary schools in Leeds show that schools expect to lose well over a 100 staff, and that only takes account of half the schools in the City.

Cllr Harris said "It is clear that schools in Leeds face even worse cuts than was talked about even a few weeks ago. The loss of teachers, and lack of funding for day to day work in our schools will affect curriculum development particularly badly, as well as building maintenance, information technology and books. 70% of Primary Schools are facing budget problems, while 67% of High Schools are also in difficulty.

"This afternoon I am moving a motion at the meeting of the full Council at the Civic Hall. It doesn't blame anyone in Leeds for the problems our schools face, it lays the blame fairly and squarely on central government, whose rhetoric of 'education, education, education' turns out to be meaningless. Their budgeting appears to have totally failed to take into account the facts that schools were faced with large bills for extra National Insurance contributions and pension payments this April. The government then even had the cheek to blame local authorities for the crisis, saying we were withholding funds from local schools - that was soon proved to be false.

…/…

"Schools know where the source of their problem lies, a few of the comments that Headteachers have made to us include :-"

 "this time last year we were assured that the gov. would continue to fund the teaching assistants via Standards Fund, this has not happened"

 "if government's want quality they must pay for it"

 "initial budget did not cover staff salaries, let alone spending on equipment"

"Other comments show how bad the situation is for their pupils :-"

 "Staff and pupils working in very poor conditions, …….. plans to provide crucial IT support for maths have been abandoned"

 "years 12 & 13 to get 2 hours less teaching per week"

 "class numbers in Yr 6 highest for 11 years"

 "frustrated that at a time when we have worked so hard to raise standards, we will have to lose a teacher and class sizes will rise"

 "only managed to avoid redundancies by not replacing staff who left for personal/professional reasons"

"These are just a few of the comments we have received from head teachers who are very unhappy about the situation they are being forced into. Councillors form all the Groups on the City Council should stand up and tell the Government they have got it wrong, and tell them very loudly and strongly - that is the purpose of my motion this afternoon."