COUNCIL workers have been drafted in to teach in Moray classrooms – to avoid school closures because of a shortage of staff.
Three education officers have become emergency supply teachers in the past week to plug the gap. And one senior council official warned yesterday that two of his staff would be teaching in schools at the start of next term to avoid sending pupils home.
Staffing issues have also been blamed for a poor inspection report on Mosstodloch primary.
Local Labour councillor Sean Morton said yesterday that the school’s disappointing performance was a “symptom of a bigger problem”.
He called on ministers to give extra support to local authorities that are facing squeezed budgets and struggling to recruit.
However, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said millions of pounds had been committed to maintaining teacher numbers.
Moray Council’s children and young people’s services committee gathered yesterday to discuss the “devastating” report on Mosstodloch, in which the school scored “weak” in four areas and “unsatisfactory” in another.
Councillors were told the primary had been through an “unsettled” period due to the long-term sickness of the former head teacher, who has since retired.
The school was supported previously by a deputy head teacher and two principal teachers.
New head Elizabeth Rennie, who started just three weeks before the inspection, now has no support team.
Inspectors said the school needed to implement the Curriculum for Excellence at an increased pace, improve children’s learning experiences and improve its self-evaluation.
The issues at Mosstodloch had not been flagged up before, as parents had been widely positive about the school.
Mr Morton, who represents the Fochabers-Lhanbryde ward, told the committee: “This is a direct result of when governments start making cuts. We are short of staff and short of resources.”
He said the “epic changes” required from teachers under the Curriculum for Excellence were increasing the pressure on staff.
Mr Morton called on council officers, Tory-independent administration councillors and SNP members to do all they could to support teaching staff and put pressure on the Scottish Government to address the issue.
Concerns were also raised that the quality-improvement officers – qualified teachers who support schools during inspections and help staff develop – were already stretched, without having to act as emergency supply teachers.
Sandy Riddell, the council’s director of education and social care, told councillors: “The reality is the system is extremely tight at the moment.
“On Tuesday, we had a quality-improvement officer that had to teach in a school because they were so short.
“The system is struggling at the moment and we will do everything to support that.”
Laurence Findlay, the council’s head of schools and curriculum development, said of the Mosstodloch report: “I never want to be in a position like that again, to see staff feeling the way they felt. That was a very savage moment.”
He said two of his officers would be going in to a school to teach in the first week of the upcoming school term, “just to keep schools open”.
He added: “The last thing I want is to send pupils home. But if I’m taking officers to keep schools open, then they are not doing their improvement work.”
Speaking after yesterday’s meeting, Mr Morton said: “The SNP should stop starving local authorities of funding, focus relentlessly on teacher training and provide extra help for councils in areas where recruitment of teachers is difficult.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We added £39million to the local government settlement specifically to support the commitment on teacher numbers.
“Our continued work with partners is maintaining stability in the teaching workforce and has kept the country-wide pupil-teacher ratio level.
“We have increased universities’ intake targets for student teachers by 670 over two years to ensure that there is an adequate supply of teachers coming through.
“It is for individual local authorities to prioritise how they spend their settlement from government.”