Labour climbdown on teacher numbers
SNP Councillor and Acting Group Leader Andy Ferguson today (Tuesday) said the Council’s Labour Administration had been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over teacher numbers following the decision of the Policy & Resources Committee to accept the Scottish Government’s funding settlement package terms, which require teacher numbers to be maintained.
SNP Councillors had moved that the Council’s budget setting be deferred until information on the settlement terms could be provided to all groups, but this proposal was ruled incompetent by the Leader.
Speaking following the meeting, Cllr Ferguson said:
“This is an embarrassing climbdown for the Labour Administration today and, to make it worse for them, it could and should have been avoided if Ronnie Nicholson had backed our position on budget day. It is another total vindication of the position we took then and a sad indictment of Labour’s attitude towards other views.
“The public be that pupils, parents or our teaching staff will welcome this intervention by the Scottish Government to protect teacher numbers in our schools.”
