Edinburgh is the first education authority to seek extra teachers to reduce class sizes in the first three primary years, following confirmation of an extra Pounds 49 million in Scottish Office funding over the next three years.
The authority, which has been allocated Pounds 412,949 in the current year to limit P1-P3 classes to 30 pupils or below by 2002, is advertising this week for a “task group” of 35 permanent teachers (page 17). They would be deployed initially in primary 1 in schools where class sizes can be cut immediately without any need to build extra accommodation.
The city is anxious to steal a march on other authorities to get the best teachers available before the competition hots up.
