Fife budget: No teacher cuts and £34m investment in digital devices

The Labour Administration budget, which was approved 40-31 will make no cuts for teacher or PSA numbers, but it will ask the education service to make £2 million worth of “efficiency” savings from their £457 million budget.

The Administration also scored a major £34 million investment for their transforming learning scheme, which will put a 1:1 digital device into the hands of every P6-S6 student in Fife.

“The Scottish Government promised to do it several years ago but hasn’t found the money for it,” Council Leader David Ross (Labour) said.

“We can’t wait for the government to come up with the money. The advice we’re getting is that at least ten other local authorities are already going down this path and our kids are in danger of being left behind.”

He added: “In terms of money, funding for education is going up by £22.6 million. If you can’t find a £2 million efficiency from a £457 million budget – not necessarily from frontline services – then there’s something wrong.”

The 1:1 digital device investment was the single biggest difference between the Labour and SNP budget proposals – for both the general revenue budget and Fife’s ten year Capital Plan.

While Labour proposed a comprehensive £34 million investment for 1:1 devices for P6-S6 students over the next ten years, the SNP group argued for a more “affordable” one-off investment of £6.8 million to give 1:1 devices to the S3-S6 cohort.

The SNP budget also protected education from Labour’s £2 million efficiency cuts and proposed to keep council tax 1.8 per cent lower than Labour.

“Let’s be clear: cutting £2 million from our frontline education budget in any form is not acceptable,” SNP Opposition leader Craig Walker said.

“For the Administration to propose cuts to education at a time when demand for support is higher than ever is to undermine the very foundation of our future.”

When it came to 1:1 device investment, SNP Councillor David Alexander (Leven, Kennoway and Largo) said his group was “prepared to support 1:1 devices” for the S3-S6 cohort and monitor the program.

He suggested that Labour’s mass roll out raised concerns about disorganisation and slippage while he cited “questionable support” from parents and teachers for the programme.

“Ultimately we want to get to the position where everyone’s got a digital device, but at this stage it’s just not affordable and we’ve taken the view that we’d far rather protect frontline education budgets,” Cllr Walker previously said.

However, Labour councillors argued that Fife Council must fully invest in the digital transformation plan for the sake of young people across the Kingdom.

“These tools are no longer luxuries, they are the basic building blocks of a good education, and it’s time now to recognise that,” Councillor Cara Hilton, Labour’s spokesperson for education, said.

She called the SNP proposals a “trimmed down, half-hearted 1:1 device rollout on the cheap” that would “not deliver the change we need to see”.

Conservative group leader Kathleen Leslie, who has been pushing for the roll out of 1:1 devices for two years, was likewise “absolutely astounded” by the SNP’s “watered-down version” of the investment.

Cllr Leslie said she’s spoken to a lot of teachers in Fife who are “enthusiastic” about the transformation plans, but she also acknowledged that there is “some hesitation”.

“With anything new, particularly technology, there is going to be some hesitation but that’s not a reason to not do it,” she said.

Education topics – particularly the 1:1 device investment – were a key part in both the general revenue budget and Fife’s 10 year Capital Plan, both of which were set yesterday.

The Labour Administration’s proposals won out in both votes, which means the education service will be given a £457 million budget and asked to find £2 million worth of efficiencies. The council will also start to make concrete plans to roll out 1:1 digital devices for all P6-S6 students now that their £34 million ten year investment plan is in place.