HUNDREDS of concerned parents packed into the hall at St Columba’s High School in Dunfermline last night (Thursday) to hear what Fife education officers had to say for themselves amid ongoing fears over cuts to the school week.

The council are insisting that the ongoing discussion about the Fife school week is not being driven with financial cuts in mind but many parents remain unconvinced.

Thousands have already signed a petition against the proposals and with Fife Council having to plug a £77million gap in the budget over the next three years, parents demanded to know what was being done to avoid the impact on education.

The proposals on the table to bring the children’s time in school – currently 25 hours – in line with the teaching contract of 22.5 hours is being heralded as a consequence of significant savings needing to be made, despite the council’s insistence that the plans are not a result of the budget.

Craig Munro, executive director of education and children’s services, kicked off the meeting last Thursday to a full room, with many parents still arriving during his talk and finding no seats left.

Mr Munro admitted that they faced a “substantial challenge” but said, “Budget cuts are not what today is about. It’s about ideas to improve education but each of these have to have efficiency.” Explaining their reasoning behind the proposals, Mr Munro said that there was no correlation between school hours and learning outcomes and the most important thing was the quality of teaching and professional learning.

“These are not financial proposals, they are ideas,” he continued. “If it’s a runner we can come back for a full consultation process, if not, we won’t come back.” Donna Manson, former head of education, echoed Mr Munro’s assurances and added, “We understand people have concerns.

“These proposals are not connected with the budget though the budget is a factor.

“If we match the weeks to 22.5 hours the teachers will have time together for professional learning. Just now it’s not the best fit for the Curriculum of Excellence. It’s the quality, not the time in class, which makes a difference.” Derek Brown, who became Fife Council’s head of education earlier this year, said that the proposals would help partnership working with colleges and work placements, allowing children opportunities to better their employment prospects.

“They will have the benefit of tackling social disadvantage by levelling the playing field across schools,” he added.

After the initial talks, Mr Munro then proposed to split the parents into groups, between those who wanted to find out more about primary school plans and those who were more interested in secondary school plans. This was met with disagreement by parents, especially those with children in both kinds of schools, but eventually a compromised was reached, with a mixed group.

Mr Brown headed the discussion group for the secondary school group, alongside Dunfermline and Inverkeithing High’s headteachers Brian Blanchflower and Iain Yuile.

This was the first chance that the parents were given to speak out and voice their concerns and it was immediately clear that the major fear was that the changes were a result of budget cuts.

Mr Brown admitted that there was a “financial context” but said, “Money can get in the way – people think it’s all about the money and it’s not, but it is related.” However, one parent accused him of “beating around the bush” and asked, “At the end of the day, money to education is being reduced. How did Fife Council try to avoid that?” Mr Blanchflower stepped in and tried to reassure the parents that the council had been doing its best to protect education.

“Every year we know there will have to be budget savings,” he said. “It’s not a set figure to be cut by, and year on year education has been protected more than other areas in the council. It could have been worse.” Parents were then shown the proposed change to the high school week, with 1600 minutes of teaching spread over four seven-period days and one four-period day, leaving the afternoon free for extra-curricular activities.

Mr Blanchflower insisted that they needed a 32-hour week and this type of asymmetrical timetable would allow the teachers more professional learning as well as providing opportunities for pupils.

“This discussion has been going on for two years,” he said. “We’ve not jumped on the bandwagon this year for the budget discussion.

“The proposals would be superbly efficient and it could save us £60,000 a year. If I have to make savings and I can’t go down this route, I would have to make them in other areas of the school.

“There will be no adverse effect on learning and teaching. I’d want to make it happen from summer 2015.” Towards the end of the meeting, Mr Brown reiterated that these were just ideas that they were testing the response to, and nothing was set in stone yet. Going forward, there is set to be Parent Council meetings to discuss the proposals in more detail and he was keen that the children themselves be involved in the process as well.

“Of course we’d like to have a consultation with the children about what kinds of opportunities they want,” he said.

“If we get to a formal consultation process we’ll take it to them but we had to talk to the parents and teachers first.”