Parents must keep up the pressure on Highland Council to scrap their controversial proposals to shorten the school week, a campaigner said yesterday.
While the suggestion was dropped from the local authority’s budget for next year, it remains on the table for 2016/17 and beyond.
This week, the council agreed £42million of cuts over the next four years. But they must still find around £14million to plug a gap.
This has caused alarm among parents in the region, who fear that youngsters will be disadvantaged.
Now the chairman of Tarradale Primary School Parent Council has called on parents to rally together to fight the proposal.
Jason Hasson attended part of Thursday’s budget meeting but said that he was disappointed with the “political points” that councillors were trying to score.
He said: “I think the pressure needs to kept on.
“We need to watch the administration over the coming year and work with the Independents.”
He said that he feared the changes would be “slipped in” in a similar way to changes to janitorial services, which have been overspent by several hundred thousands pounds.
Among the measures agreed to save money from the education budget include increasing the use of technology in schools, increasing the cost of school meals and raising more income by letting school facilities after hours.
But councillors have also deferred plans to cut secondary teaching staff by 1% – making a total saving of £600,000 in 2016/17 and 2017/18.