I want to put on record a very big thank you to everyone involved in the organisation of local events and galas that have and are being run throughout the summer months across our communities. These events happen because people give up their time and put in a lot of work and so far this year thousands have enjoyed such events, so a big thank you to everyone who makes these happen.
Before Parliament went into recess I raised a question in the chamber with the Education Secretary about the millions of pounds that are being cut from school budgets across Fife and he basically blamed the council. But whilst politicians blame each other our children’s education suffers and that is not good enough.
Now it is true that failed Tory austerity is hitting Scottish budgets but it is equally true that the SNP Government in Edinburgh has passed on a disproportionate amount of that austerity to local councils and they in turn are passing large parts of those cuts on to our schools.
When I grew up, doing well at school was important but there was always job opportunities regardless of qualifications. In today’s modern economy this is less so and it is crucial therefore that every child gets the chance to achieve their potential, and yet, class sizes are growing for too many children, it is a hit or a miss when it comes to the provision of ICT, subject choices are being restricted, there is a shortage of specialist teachers and now in this new coming term millions of pounds is to be cut from the frontline.
In private schools the average teacher pupil ratio is one teacher to eight pupils and yet in local schools across our area the teacher pupil ratio continues to rise. In the areas covered by this newspaper there are 149 primary school classes of which 70 are over 25 pupils to 1 teacher, and 18 classes of over 30. This is why we need more not less investment and a programme of teacher assistants introduced into the classrooms to support teaching and learning.
The fact is that Scottish Education is falling behind, our teachers are working under immense pressure and far too many of our children are being let down as a result. This is why we must fight against the cuts in education and for more resources for our schools.
