Almost a fifth of teachers in Dundee will be eligible to apply for early retirement next year.
City council education director Michael Wood has said allowing some of them to leave will make financial savings and help remove ”excess staff”.
Earlier this week it emerged (link) that the number of teachers working in city schools has fallen by almost 100 since 2009-10, to just under 1,400.
Labour claimed this is harming children’s education, but SNP education convener Liz Fordyce said pupil attainment was rising.
Explaining his support for further retirements, Mr Wood said: ”The teacher-to-pupil ratio remains one of the more generous allocations compared to other local authorities.
”There are still, however, situations within some of our schools where we have excess teachers.”
New teachers often struggle to find permanent jobs after completing their mandatory one-year probationary period with a local authority although in recent years Dundee has had one of the better records for taking them on.
Labour group education spokesman Laurie Bidwell said: ”Is the education convener prepared to commit to filling the posts of retiring teachers in Dundee with a recently qualified teacher?
”If not, it seems likely that this scheme will have the effect of further reducing the number of teachers in our schools in Dundee.”