ANALYSIS: 'The attainment gap must not be politicised - it is too important'
CHILDREN are learning lessons in dirty schools while being taught from textbooks with pages missing because of swingeing cuts to education budgets, it has been claimed.
Staff regularly have to provide pens, pencils and paper out of their own pocket for children while pupils also face a total lack of "fun activities and educational trips".
Weekly roast dinners have been scrapped from dining halls and schoolchildren have to make do with thawed-out frozen bread when it was formerly provided fresh each day.
The numbers of cleaners, janitors and support staff in some schools has fallen dramatically, and teachers fear the squeeze on school spending risks having a long-term impact on pupils as they miss out on vital parts of their education because of reduced resources and a lack of staff.
The claims have been made by the union Unison in a submission to the Local Government and Communities Committee as it hears evidence ahead of next year's budget.
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Unison has produced a number of surveys on the impact cuts have had on local authority services, and the comments made by those in the education sector make for grim reading.
One response to the survey highlighted "cuts to cleaners hours, same for classroom assistants and auxiliaries".
“Funding for training and trips has ceased," it said. "(It) impacts on staff and pupils, the school is dirty, extra classroom support is missing, impacting on the whole class, including the teacher; staff are not learning new skills and are unaware of changes to legislation.
“Pupils are missing out on fun activities and educational trips which previously provided them with a deeper insight and understanding in many subject areas.”
Another added: “We have lost a lot of additional needs assistants over the last few years."
The staff member said it was "hard to cover break and lunch times" in terms of the supervision of children. This was "not meeting the needs of children", they added.
“Stationery, books for children, learning tools, all to be shared and has an impact on learning."
Maths resources are said to be “woeful”, while many office staff have been moved over to term-time, meaning there is no-one to call on during holidays.
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In its submission to the committee, Unison writes: “There is no doubt that local government is struggling to deliver services on the current budgets. There is no discussion about how to deal with such substantial budget cuts in Scotland.
“Instead we have salami slicing of services leaving staff working long hours and skipping breaks trying to maintain services on a shoestring.”
The union continues: “We have so far undertaken surveys across 18 different services across the public sector, the message we got back from members in these jobs were strikingly similar.
“Jobs have been cut but no work has been reduced. Members are under enormous stress from both the physical and emotional demands of trying to maintain a quality services without adequate resources.
“It’s the more experienced staff that volunteer for redundancy or retire. This means work is now being undertaking by staff with less experience and training and at lower rates of pay.
“This adds pressure as experience and training make it easier to do the work and this, added to a long pay freeze, is leading to a demoralised workforce.”
The union also raised concerns about the impact of cuts on libraries, registrars' offices and building control departments.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said that Ministers were aware of the challenges facing teachers and school staff, and were working to bring in reforms.
She said: “Improving the education and life chances of our children and young people is the defining mission of this government.
“While there are many strengths in Scottish education, we recognise that we must continue to go further to achieve more.
“We are currently undertaking bold reforms to address the culture, capacity and structure of Scottish education and we are consulting widely, including with the teaching profession and key stakeholders to ensure their views are heard.”
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