£10 million education boost will not reach root causes

Glenrothes SSP Press Release Monday 26th August 2002
A Glenrothes spokesman for the Scottish Socialist Party has claimed that a Scottish Executive plan to provide extra support for school discipline problems is only scratching the surface of a much deeper problem. The SSP responded to education minister Cathy Jamieson's announcement of a £10 million funding boost for schools to deal with unruly and truanting pupils.

The SSP argue that dealing with overcrowded classes has led to an unacceptable burden on already overworked teachers. They claim that reducing class sizes dramatically will enable more to be done proactively rather than resorting to what they see as 'emergency measures'.

"The SSP would cut class sizes to a maximum of twenty," said Glenrothes SSP spokesman Jim Balfour. "This would reduce the burden on teachers and would lead to increased teacher pupil contact. Teaching staff could then intervene earlier to support pupils showing signs of developing difficulties in school, but before these difficulties led to serious behavioural problems or truanting.

"Some good may come of this announcement, but unless the extra investment is made to deal with the root causes of this crisis, our schools will continue to fail vulnerable children, with the knock-on effect that has on those children who manage not to get into negative behaviour patterns."