FIFE Council leader David Ross said claims that teachers are to be cut from Lynburn Primary School “are just not true”.

He hit back after angry parents accused his Labour administration of failing children by raising class sizes, two years after assurances that they wouldn’t rise when pupils moved to the school following the closure of Pitcorthie Primary. 

Fay Sinclair, SNP councillor for Dunfermline South, said: “Labour councillors should hang their heads in shame at the way they are treating this community. 

“As if closing a school and the library in Abbeyview wasn’t enough, Labour are now cutting teachers, despite assurances made during the so-called consultation on the closure of Pitcorthie Primary.

“Only now, weeks after this cut was voted through by Labour and Tory councillors, are we seeing details of how it will affect local schools."

Lynburn parent Shirley MacDonald, part of the campaign group to save Pitcorthie Primary, said: “I feel that all the promises Fife Council made about reduced class sizes were empty. They said what they knew we wanted to hear at the time. Two years is nothing.

“We live in an area of social deprivation and the Scottish Government is putting nursery initiatives in place for under-fives, but then Fife Council completely fail these children as soon as they get to primary one. It’s an absolute farce.”

Cllr Sinclair said that, because of the council’s £3 million cut to the education budget, classes will rise from a maximum of 18 to 25 pupils in Primary 1 and up to 30 pupils in Primary 2 and 3, meaning fewer classes and fewer teachers at the school.

She said the concern is that Lynburn could lose two to three teachers from August.

But Cllr Ross said: “These assertions are just not true. The fact is that results in primary 1 are significantly improved thanks to the investment in early years and the new family nurture approach introduced by Fife’s Labour administration.

“Lynburn has seen the opening of a brand new £1.4m nursery facility and improvements to the school building to provide an improved learning environment. I understand that children transferred from Pitcorthie have settled in very well.”

He continued: “However Lynburn is being affected by teacher absences right now, with classes being taken by supply teachers and depute heads. The new arrangements will ensure that children in the school will have a permanent teacher and consistency of teaching next year. The main problem we face in Fife is a shortage of teachers to fill vacancies. 

“There are around 21 vacancies in Fay Sinclair’s own ward and we estimate there are 500 children in the Dunfermline area who currently don’t have a permanent class teacher.

“I’d like to see Fay Sinclair and her supporters starting petitions demanding that the SNP government come up with the funding Fife needs rather than criticise Fife Council for continuing to improve education despite SNP government cuts.”

He said the Labour administration had invested in the new nursery and agreed £1.5m for facilities in Abbeyview, but said the SNP failed to “commit the match funding needed to rebuild Woodmill, St Columba’s and Inverkeithing high schools”.