Latest figures reveal spend per pupil drops in city despite funding

DUNDEE has seen a fall in education spending since 2010 despite Scottish Government funding to raise attainment, according to the latest figures.

As pupils prepare to go back to school this week, data from the Local Government Benchmarking Framework revealed that spend per primary school pupil was 10% less in 2017-18 than in 2010-11 i n real terms, going down from £5,296 to £4,759.

For secondary schools in the city, the decrease was 7.5%.

The gap for primary schools was even larger in Fife (16%), with spending going down from £5,234 to £5,080 in the same time period, with a decrease of 1.7% for secondary schools, from £6,455 to £6,345 per pupil.

Meanwhile, Angus saw a 2.9% spending fall in primary education and 10% in secondary, while Perth and Kinross was the only local authority area i n Courier Country to record an increase, at 2% in primary and 1% in secondary schools.

Scottish Labour hit out at the figures, accusing the SNP of “brutal funding cuts” for the most vulnerable communities.

Dundee is one of nine “challenge authorities” in Scotland and received money from the £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund in order to support pupils living i n deprivation.

Scottish Labour Education spokesperson Iain Gray MSP said: “Even including attainment funding, the most deprived communities are seeing brutal f unding cuts i n school classrooms.”

H o w e v e r, D u n d e e ’s Children And Families Service Convener Stewart Hunter, of the SNP, said the fall in spending was due to city school mergers and new-build schools being more energy efficient.