SCHOOLS are having to cut the number of subjects they offer to pupils as a direct result of cuts, teachers’ leaders have warned.
An education union said current budgetary pressures meant courses such as extra languages and sciences could not run unless at least ten pupils were interested.
The concerns were raised at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s education committee which is examining the roll-out of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms.
Read more: Parents left in the dark about education system, MSPs told
There has been concern CfE is restricting choice because some schools are only offering six subjects in S4 instead of eight in previous years because of timetabling restrictions.
However, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said CfE was not restricting choice and pointed the finger at cuts.
He told the committee: “Timetable options are resource-led. You need to have the teachers and you need to have demand.
“The days when schools could run classes for five, six or seven pupils are long gone and a timetabler or headteacher will say that if you haven’t got at least ten picking a subject as an option then it is not even getting looked at.
Read more: Parents left in the dark about education system, MSPs told
“This is to do with budget pressures because schools have got to cut their cloth and those that had flexibility in the past to run an extra science or language course do not have that option on the table now and that is a very real pressure.”
Mr Flanagan also revealed that a committee set up to look at qualifications was considering whether to introduce an external exam for National 4 qualifications.
Numbers sitting the qualification have fallen amidst claims the lack of an external exam has devalued it in the eyes of pupils, parents and employers.
Terry Lanagan, a spokesman for the Association of Directors of Education Scotland, also highlighted the problem of teacher shortages.
He said: “We are in a difficult position with that and certain parts of the country are really struggling to fill posts and that is a challenge for the system.
“That has to do with workforce management and drop-out rates from university courses and teacher education university courses which have to be looked at.”
Meanwhile, the head of Scotland’s national education body said large parts of the 20,000 pages of online advice for teachers on curriculum reforms that has been amassed were necessary.
Bill Maxwell, chief executive of Education Scotland, said much of the guidance was an “appropriate response” at the time it was published.
Read more: Parents left in the dark about education system, MSPs told
The extent of the advice emerged last year amid concerns teachers were overwhelmed with unnecessary and unclear guidance.
Mr Maxwell said: “I would argue much of it was an appropriate response at that point in time when it was requested and served a useful purpose for a period of time and then has a natural time-span.
“I won’t pretend every piece of advice we’ve put out ever has absolutely hit the mark.”
Tavish Scott, education spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said efforts by the CfE management group to reduce workloads were a “dossier of failures”.
The party said the board had discussed workloads on numerous occasions, but failed to take action.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel