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Politicians did not understand extent of teacher crisis, says Moray chief executive

Roddy Burns insists he is committed to ensuring pupils are not sent home
Roddy Burns insists he is committed to ensuring pupils are not sent home

Moray Council chief executive Roddy Burns has claimed councillors and MSPs did not appear to recognise the scale of teacher shortages facing the region.

He said he hoped the message was finally getting through and talks could begin to work out how best to address the situation.

Mr Burns said he and his staff were committed to ensuring pupils were not sent home but would like the local authority to have more flexibility to respond to the crisis.

He claimed there was an argument to examine the case for offering supply teachers from outwith Moray a financial incentive which would help people in the “right circumstances”.

Asked what he thought politicians should be doing to try and resolve the crisis, Mr Burns said: “As a chief executive I would be looking for recognition of the issues – I am not absolutely clear there is that recognition.

“I think there might be awareness so if we get that recognition within the council and Scottish Government I think we can get the discussion and debate going about how we address it.”

Mr Burns said the solution lay in working better with existing resources, not throwing money at the problem.

The chief executive said councillors must examine rural school provision and consider challenging the law to argue that P1 class sizes should be increased from 25 to 30.

Mr Burns said: “I really struggle with the concept that in law there is a presumption against closing schools when in fact we are closing them and have closed them.

“We need to have that political discussion about how we get round this difficulty.”

Referring to increasing P1 classes, the chief executive said: “This is a good example of where flexibility would be helpful to get the balance right between the available resources and a series of outcomes.”

Mr Burns said major road and rail infrastructure improvements could make the region a more attractive place to work for some people.

Laurence Findlay of Moray Council
Laurence Findlay of Moray Council

Laurence Findlay, Moray Council’s corporate director of education and social care, said he was in favour of councillors reexamining the school estate to see if staffing resources could be used more efficiently.

He added that a leadership and management review in primary schools was needed and increasing P1 class sizes would “alleviate” pressures in certain schools.