This was the stark warning given to Fife Council by the region's largest education union the EIS, following the publication of a new three-year-plan for finance.

The union, which includes around 3200 members in Fife, said the figures showed that some large secondary schools, around the size of Balwearie in Kirkcaldy, being asked to cut around a quarter of a million pounds from their budgets over the next three years.

And they stressed that more cutbacks in the service, described as "savings" and "rationalisations" would force headteachers to reduce staffing, cover and staff development as they would have nowhere else.

"They are deep and swingeing cuts which can only be to the detriment of children, their parents and our members," a spokesman for EIS Fife said.

"In a large secondary school for example, the cuts could amount to more than £250,000 between 2008-2011. For each and every nursery, primary and secondary school in this authority, irrespective of the actual arithmetical figure, these are cuts to the bone.

"Are we, as teachers, expected to keep the patient alive as the surgery continues?"

The EIS in Fife said it was continuing to debate the situation with Fife Council, and was making it very clear that it was strongly opposed to any cutbacks.

"The situation has now moved far beyond mere efficiency savings," said the spokesman. "Headteachers are being placed in an impossible situation where further cuts will limit how schools can function, and will damage the education service in Fife.

However, Councillor Douglas Chapman, education chairman, hit back.
"This is the best deal for education in Fife for many years," he said.

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