Parents at a north primary school have said they are “deeply concerned” at cutbacks to support staff.
Almost 50 parents attended a meeting at Tarradale Primary in Muir of Ord last week.
The school is set for a 30% reduction in hours among its pupil support assistants, almost the equivalent of two full-time posts among the five strong staff at the primary.
Parent council chairman Jason Hasson said he was concerned about the impact on pupils who rely on extra support – as well as whole classes if the cuts put extra pressure on teachers.
He said he had invited all of the local councillors and senior education officials to the meeting, but none of them attended.
He said that the cuts would take more than 40 hours away from the pupil support assistants time at work.
Mr Hasson said: “It will obviously have an impact on the pupils who need the extra support but it will also be knock-on to everyone else in the classroom.
“If pupil A say has to have help with their reading or even to go to the bathroom then what does the teacher do. Ask the rest of the class to do the work on page 12 and leave them to it?
“I know when I was at school when the teacher left the room that was an excuse for some time off.”
Local SNP councillor Graham MacKenzie said: “It’s a tragedy that this has to happen.
“I know in the case of Dingwall Academy that staffing levels in pupil support are much diminished from even when I was rector five years ago and there’s a bigger roll.
“It is regrettable but the way things are with the council budget and the education budget we have to cut back.
“There are some winners from the review of ‘additional support needs’ as well but it’s difficult to comment further until our briefing.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “This equates to an approximate 30% reduction on the basis of needs in the school and in relation to historical staffing levels prior to this.”
She added that across the authority around there are around 670 full time equivalent posts across the authority and it is expected the number will be broadly the same in the next school year.
