At a time when local governments are starved of cash no one should get a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense.
To save significant money we need radical but achievable measures, hard truths, and feathers ruffled.
So I’m about to ruffle feathers. Believe me, this won’t go down well in some quarters.
Great savings could be made, Scotland-wide, by dismantling the “virtual school” system.
The virtual school is teachers ensconced at council head office or, nowadays, on their sofa at home, tasked with considering new teaching techniques and bettering school performance.
The value for money is highly questionable.
It’s nice to have someone advising on things like teaching children in care, but hardly essential in a cost-of-living crisis.
There are several avenues into becoming a virtual teacher but sometimes, it is said, when a teacher is a problem – not quite bad enough to sack (it’s a procedural nightmare to sack a teacher) – they end up in this “job”.
I wonder how frontline teachers, as they dodge punches and kicks, feel about virtual schools (VS)? I’ve heard that some regard them as a deeply unfunny joke.
If there is to be a group of advisors, they should surely be in real classrooms looking at real pupils.
Could anyone, anonymously perhaps, say if classroom teachers think the VS is useful? (Please get in touch).
While we’re talking about improving education, bin the failed Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) – known to some teachers as “Crap for Everyone”. And delete the National Improvement Framework nonsense which isn’t working.
Parents, and good teachers, crave a return to core reading, writing and arithmetic, with art, sport, manners and respect taught too.
But these are nationwide problems. Can we effect money-saving change, quickly, in Dundee? I believe we can.
Dundee and Angus council areas have a combined 264,000 population. But separate education (and every other department) services.
Whereas Fife, with 20,000 more people than Angus/Dundee combined, has one education director, one staff, one administrative structure.
The Angus and Dundee departments should be merged. They are duplicating work just a few miles from each other.
It’s an opportunity to sweep away virtual schools. I reckon an independent cost-benefit analysis would prove they aren’t needed – go back to trusting class teachers.
Dundee’s head of service for education, and Angus equivalent, could both apply to run the merged department. Getting rid of one of these bloated salaries would instantly save around £100,000.
That’s money to keep Cairdy Golf open, or a couple of libraries. And it won’t affect the standard of education at classroom level.
A full merger of Angus and Dundee education departments, cutting out duplicated jobs, would save millions more.
Under Scottish Government rules local authorities can propose changes to any aspect of education provision in their area.
So, Dundee and Angus, put together a proposal. One that prioritises pupils and taxpayers, not cushy jobs.
STEVE FINAN: Merge Dundee and Angus education and put the money saved into classrooms and libraries
2
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13.03.2024
At a time when local governments are starved of cash no one should get a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense.
To save significant money we need radical but achievable measures, hard truths, and feathers ruffled.
So I’m about to ruffle feathers. Believe me, this won’t go down well in some quarters.
Great savings could be made, Scotland-wide, by dismantling the “virtual school” system.
The virtual school is teachers ensconced at council head office or, nowadays, on their sofa at home, tasked with considering new teaching techniques and bettering school performance.
The value for money is highly questionable.
It’s nice to have someone advising on things like teaching children in care, but hardly essential in a cost-of-living........
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