Something like 40,00 primary pupils in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire are in classes of 40 and more, about 7,000 are in classes over 45, and about 600 are in classes over 50. The figures produced this week by an EIS survey of three difficult areas give some idea of the magnitude of the problem of distributing what most people consider to be an ample supply of primary teachers.
The strain on teachers is a worry to some heads; to some parents, the worry is the physical health of children crammed into huts where walls stream with condensation. Teachers and parents worry about part-time education, but might be excused if they reckoned that the children who get a half day out of some schools are the lucky ones.
* The award of prizes to pupils in Aberdeen secondary schools will be discontinued from session 1972-73, the education committee agreed at a recent meeting. The money allocated for prizes should be used, at the discretion of headteachers, to buy books for school libraries.
* Pupils at Fauldhouse junior secondary school, West Lothian, who have not had a music teacher for almost a year, are to be given music lessons on cassette tapes prepared by other music teachers in the county under the supervision of the music adviser, Mr John Watson.
* Edinburgh education committee has overturned a sub-committee decision that children who entered the former fee-paying schools during the time fees were abolished should be exempted from paying when fees are reintroduced next session.
* The amalgamation of Glasgow’s colleges of printing and building under one principal - Mr David McEwan, head of the college of building - has been approved by the education committee. The merger was opposed by Councillor Ellen McCulloch, who described it as “a shotgun wedding between an ill-matched couple.”
TES SCOTLAND, NOVEMBER 19, 1971
