Russell backs union stance over school teacher figures
BUT COUNCIL REJECTS MSP’S CLAIMS ABOUT CENSUS AND SAYS IT IS FOLLOWING GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES
CLAIMS by a union that head teachers in Argyll are being pressurised into inflating the number of qualified classroom staff in their schools has been strenuously denied by the council.
Concerns have been growing among senior teachers who said they have been asked to count ‘special advisers’ or those on weeks-long temporary contracts as part of their school’s permanent teaching complement for a council census.
Some educationalists estimate that Argyll and Bute council has a shortage of 40 teachers and, as a consequence, stands to lose £ 800,000 from the Scottish government.
The Association of Head Teachers and Deputies trade union confirmed that head teachers in Argyll and Bute had contacted them ‘to raise concerns’.
A spokesman for the union said: ‘It has come to our attention that a minority of local authorities are putting considerable pressure on head teachers to submit misleading census returns – by suggesting central staff are on a census return despite the fact they were not in school on census day.
‘Our advice to members, specifically in relation to these returns, is: do not to sign off inaccurate returns. If others are signing off
returns on your behalf without you having sight of and agreeing with the information, you should query this immediately.
‘In short, the advice is that members should always ensure that they understand and agree with any information being submitted before they sign it or consent to it being submitted in their name.’
As many as 15 head teachers have said they felt under pressure from the local authority to deliver ‘positive’ results. In fact, one head teacher said they thought their job was under threat if they failed to comply with the request.
The senior teacher said: ‘ Immense pressure was being put on teachers in order that the local authority did not miss out on £ 800,000 worth of extra funding from the Scottish government by allowing teacher numbers to fall below the benchmark level.’
Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute and former Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Scottish government, issued a stern warning to the local authority: ‘I am very concerned at the warning from the Association of Head Teachers and Deputes, a highly reputable teaching trade union. Their information about attempts to cheat the teaching census in Argyll and Bute or anywhere else must have come directly from their own members in schools.
A persistent critic of the council, the Holyrood politician continued: ‘I shall be asking the Scottish government to be very vigilant with regard to these returns, due for publication in December.
‘They relate to a central issue of vital importance to parents, pupils and Scottish education - the employment of the right number of teachers in classrooms the length and breadth of the country.
‘Councils receive money to support the maintenance of teacher numbers, so submitting false returns would be an act of deliberate financial fraud.’
He also called for tough disciplinary sanctions if ‘some types of teachers are being wrongly included or if any other illegitimate technique for boosting numbers is being used’.
Michael Russell also said he would deal with any ‘ whistle-blowers’ sympathetically: ‘If a head teacher or education official in Argyll and Bute has been asked or told to submit false or doctored returns, they should feel free to contact me and I will make sure that information is passed to the government in the strictest confidence whilst, of course maintaining their anonymity.’
In some schools, staff from quality improvement teams and specialist advisers in subjects were said to be added to government returns.
While census returns were due to be collated in the week of September 21 -25, 2015, a spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute said: ‘The process for undertaking the staff census is not yet complete and therefore we are not able to respond to the figures at this time.
‘ We will be submitting these figures in line with Scottish government guidance.’
Census returns in 2014 show that there were 878 teachers in Argyll and Bute.
Sources say the local authority has not replaced teachers with as many as 40 teachers having left the education system.
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: ‘This government is committed to ensuring we have the right number of teachers, with the right skills, in the right places to educate our young people.
‘These are national statistics and local authorities are obliged to make sure their returns are correct and they will be subjected to robust checking to confirm the accuracy of the data provided.’