Dudley councillor hits out at funding cuts as '500 teaching jobs at risk'
Nearly 500 teachers could face the axe under government plans to shake up the way it pays for education, it has been claimed.
Figures from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) show funding will drop by nine per cent in the Dudley borough under a new funding formula, meaning schools will lose more than £18 million.
There could also be a loss of 496 teachers by 2019, which includes 139 from secondary schools, according to the teacher's union.
A borough councillor has now called on the Government to look at the plans again.
At a full council meeting last night, Councillor Ian Cooper, cabinet member for children's services, was asking the authority's chief to urge ministers to re-think the plans.
The Government is consulting on a change in the way it funds schools, which it claims will make the system less 'unfair'.
But according to the NUT individual schools could lose as many as 18 teachers, as well as hundreds of thousands of pounds in government funding.
In some cases it equates to almost £600 per pupil, although there are big differences and at other schools it could be as little as £44 per child lost with no teachers axed.
Councillor Cooper said: "All of the headteachers from each school have written to the parents to describe the impact of the cuts, which I think shows how serious the situation is.
"It will mean that classes have more pupils which will result in less attention to each child in the class.
"There is more and more pressure being applied to schools and hard working teachers are under pressure.
"What have children done to have a poorer education?
"Every single primary school is always losing money which tells me that all schools are going to face a crisis situation within the near future.
"My other concern is that teaching assistants who work with individual students and pupils because they need more help could be under threat too."
Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the NUT, said: "When the Government's real terms cuts take effect schools will simply be running on empty.
"Parents cannot sit back and watch their children's education harmed by this bargain basement approach to schooling."
The Government's proposal is to introduce the changes gradually from April 2018.
