The Courier today ran an article about the issue of education capital expenditure and the issue of the SNP's P1-3 class sizes "commitment" - I paste below my full response on the issue :
LibDem council group leader Cllr Fraser Macpherson said,
"The major problem with the SNP's so-called commitment to the class sizes policy is that it has been totally underfunded and the capital allocation the Scottish government has been made thus far wouldn't make any substantive difference at all to meeting their commitment. To get to the 18 class size position in P1-3 in all schools would require not just a far greater capital allocation, it would also require very significant increases in revenue funding for teaching and other staff, something the SNP government has completely failed to fund. Nicol Stephen is right to highlight this significant failing of the SNP government.
"The City Council Education Committee back in August agreed to make capital expenditure allocations to projects vital to address important improvements needed to our schools, including St Luke's and St Matthew's Primary School. Before any SNP councillor criticises this, I don’t remember any of them saying that St Luke's and St Matthew's Primary School shouldn't get this much needed improvement.
"It is very clear from the Concordat the Scottish Government has concluded with COSLA that, although there is an aspiration to move towards lower class sizes, the SNP Government is not coming up with anything remotely sufficient in terms of funding to achieve this. Therefore Dundee City Council will rightly spend funding on what are the greatest priorities to deliver quality education in the City and I applaud this approach."