Dozens of Dundee teacher posts set to be axed as council eyes £2m worth of savings

Dundee City Council is set cut dozens of teacher posts in a bid to save close to £2 million.

The local authority’s budget proposals confirmed plans to slash 32 full time teachers across the city’s primary and secondary schools.

It’s estimated the reduction will save the council around £1.9m in the upcoming financial year.

But Dundee City Council chiefs admit the cuts could have an impact on the ability of school’s to provide enhanced support to pupils.

Where are the cuts coming from?

According to budget papers, the proposed saving is expected to be delivered in two ways:

• change the existing formula for mainstream teachers which will result in a reduction of
approximately 28 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers based on projected pupil rolls.

• change the allocation of Newly Qualified Teachers to Primary Schools, increasing from 0.6 FTE to 0.7 FTE. This equates to an approximate saving of 4.7 FTE based on projected pupil rolls.

The above change would result in an overall reduction in 32.7 FTE teachers and deliver an annual saving of £1.984m.

These savings have been identified by officers in the council’s Children and Families Service, rather than the SNP administration.

As of September 2023, Dundee had total of 1,431 teachers working across primary and secondary schools.

The number of teachers the Scottish Government expects Dundee City Council to maintain is 1,395 full time equivalents.

However, an impact assessment included in the budget papers outlines the proposed cuts will have a “negative” impact on pupils and employment opportunities.

The report noted the reduction in numbers will impact on the “flexibility of schools to be able to provide enhanced support to children and young people”.

It was also highlighted the cuts will result in fewer teacher job opportunities in the city.

Teaching union ‘extremely alarmed’

David Gibson, EIS teaching union rep for Dundee said: “The EIS in Dundee are extremely alarmed and disappointed about proposals to cut teacher numbers in the city.

“These deep cuts will impact all children in Dundee and negatively impact attainment in Dundee.

“Many in schools are already referring to a staffing crisis in teaching before these cuts, so will likely be further dispirited reading this news.”

A final decision on the budget will be made at a meeting on Thursday.