In my letter to Fife Free Press today I said:
As acknowledged by teachers’ union EIS and hundreds of concerned local residents, the £3m being cut from Fife Council’s education budget appears likely to result in staffing cuts: an issue of great concern to Mid Fife Greens.
Schools across Fife are already being affected by staffing shortages, and stress is becoming an increasing issue for the remaining staff who are required to deal with the impacts of this.
During budget negotiations with the SNP, the Scottish Green Party secured an additional £160m funding for local authorities, which meant an extra £10.8m for Fife Council. We are thrilled that this has enabled the council to abandon proposals for many of its cuts – such as increasing primary school class sizes to the maximum legal limits.
However, we are disappointed that such significant cuts are still being made from the education budget, and call on Fife Council for greater transparency regarding the budget, which doesn’t appear to fully account for the extra funding secured by Green MSPs.