Your front page report on the teacher training crisis last week echoes concerns by UCU members in teacher training departments in universities.

The decision to slash the teacher education budget by almost a third makes little sense after periods of huge rises followed by massive cuts. The union argues for limited and sustainable growth to ensure teacher training in the country can continue at sensible levels and meet the needs of Scotland’s schools.

The massive cut in the Scottish Government’s draft budget for teacher training threatens to lead to redundancies in education departments. We are seriously concerned about teacher workforce planning, which has seen massive increases in the teacher education budgets then cut-backs on a cyclical basis, leading to a ridiculous hire-and-fire regime.

We call on the Government to ensure teacher educators are not lost to the profession by reconsidering such a large and sudden cut in funding.

Lesley McIntosh, president, University and College Union Scotland.