South Wales Evening Post - 15 April 2006
A Shock warning has been sounded that teachers' jobs could be lost in Swansea. Worried head teachers in the city say a squeeze on school budgets will lead to a drop in standards.
Julian Doroszczuk, chairman of the Swansea Secondary Heads Finance Group, says head teachers in the county will have to scrimp and save to make ends meet.
Mr Doroszczuk, who is also head teacher at Birchgrove Comprehensive School, added yesterday: "My colleagues and I have been working with officers of the education department and councillors to attempt to overcome very significant financial difficulties arising from this year's budget settlement on schools.
"While we have been informed that the increase in overall education funding is 3.5 per cent, when the funding for services provided at the centre and specific grants are removed the scenario at individual schools' budget level is very different."
Head teachers fear that they could be left with a below-inflation increase of just 1.7 per cent on last year's settlement.
"This does not cover basic pay and price increases, let alone allow for any development of the curriculum and teaching resources or improvements to premises."
In February, the Post revealed that Swansea Council had sent a confidential letter to all head teachers asking for them to identify possible savings, including looking at the possibility of redundancies.
It now seems likely that some teachers will lose their jobs.
Mr Doroszczuk said: "The majority of secondary head teachers and their respective governing bodies are having major problems in setting individual school budgets that do not result in large numbers of teacher redundancies, a marked reduction in the curriculum offered, and overall decline in standards offered to the children of Swansea."
Labour education spokesman John Miles described the situation as "nothing short of scandalous".
Swansea Council's cabinet member for education Mike Day said that rising costs and Assembly-led savings meant schools faced a difficult time.
He said: "The council has been working with head teachers to consider ways of mitigating some of these problems. Additional funding has been provided to meet some of the extra energy costs, for example.
"Despite the council passing on any money received from the Assembly for schools and continuing to fund education above the indicative level recommended by the Assembly, I do recognise the problems faced by schools.
"We will need to continue to work together to ensure that, as far as possible, we are able to provide the educational experience for Swansea children that they deserve."
