‘Teachers face axe if schools’ cash is cut’

Published: 25 March, 2010
by TOM FOOT

CLASS sizes will swell to unacceptable levels and teachers will lose their jobs if a programme of education funding cuts goes through, union chiefs have warned.

The Town Hall wants to reduce the amount schools in Camden receive each year by up to 10 per cent. Education chiefs say the cuts are a precautionary measure in anticipation of a cash ­crisis in the public sector.

The first day of action in a series of planned protests was held in the playground of Gospel Oak Primary School on Tuesday.

Andrew Baisley, branch secretary of Camden National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: “This will have a massive impact on schools in Camden – it is too awful to contemplate. It will increase class sizes – great things in Camden like schemes giving individual tuition to children will go, less equipment. There will be fewer teaching assistants in the classes.

“It is very rare to cut a school’s actual budget. If you think that 85 per cent of a school’s budget is staff, and they are talking about making 10 per cent, it would be impossible to do that without cutting teachers.”

Camden’s Labour leader Nash Ali and MP Frank Dobson, who took part in the Gospel Oak protest, said the cuts were “a disgrace” and urged the council to use its £100million reserves to maintain funding for schools.

Camden’s education chief Cllr Andrew Mennear was unavailable for comment yesterday (Wednesday). He said a fortnight ago he felt it would be better to begin to prepare schools for the “shock” of the anticipated cuts to the public sector. 

He has said whichever party is elected in May, there will be less money for schools because of the recessions. He said it was important to for schools to be prepared for what lies ahead.