SCHOOL FUNDING FALLING BEHIND BY £400M
FUNDING for Scotland’s schools has fallen by £400million since 2010, according to new figures.
Independent analysis commissioned by Scottish Labour has revealed spending on schools has been cut by 7.5 per cent in real terms in the past eight years.
The research by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre suggests council spending on education has fallen from £5.3billion in 2009-10 to £4.9billion in 2017-18.
The figures for 2017-18 include the Government’s Pupil Equity Funding, which isn’t supposed to be used to replace existing provision. Labour claimed the figures showed the SNP had failed to protect schools.
Education spokesman Iain Gray said: “Protecting education spending should have been a priority for the SNP when the Tories came to power – instead there has been more than £400million worth of cuts since 2010.
“No wonder we are seeing soaring class sizes, overworked teachers and a stubborn attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils.”
A Scottish Government spokesman insisted they have “prudently and competently managed Scotland’s finances”.
He added: “We are committing £750million during the course of this Parliament to tackle the povertyrelated attainment gap and ensure every child in Scotland has an equal chance to succeed – including £120million Pupil Equity Funding direct to schools this year.
“Local authorities are directly responsible for setting school budgets and the latest figures show local authority spend on education increased from £4.95billion in 2015-16 to £5.07billion in 2016-17 – a real terms increase of 0.3 per cent.
“Councils can use their powers to increase council tax by up to three per cent to support local services.”