Leader comment: School budgets can't be squeezed further

As stark warnings go, they don't get much bolder.

Female teacher is teaching shapes to her primary school students. She is asking hem a question and some of the students have their hand in the air to answer.

Alison Murphy, Edinburgh secretary of the EIS, tells the Evening News today that Capital schools are at breaking point and any further cuts would be “horrific”.

Teachers, she says, already see it as normal to have to buy pencils, pens and other basic supplies for kids out of their own pockets. That is not just unacceptable and embarrassing for any wealthy country in 2018, but indicative of just how severe the situation has already become.

As we revealed last week, the council administration is set to consider proposals to reduce the budgets given to headteachers by up to three per cent, which could affect staffing and class sizes.

The council is as ever in a difficult position. It needs to find savings and find a balance in deciding how taxpayers money should be spent.

But what is coming across loud and clear today is that schools simply cannot be squeezed any further.

We must take care of our city’s future and that means giving the kids in classrooms across the city the best possible start in life.

These cuts are only initial proposals at the moment drawn up by council officials. Let’s hope they never go any further.