ANGRY Fife teachers faced with £1.1 million cuts in high schools are to organise a meeting with parents, politicians and the public.

Fed up members of the EIS met in Glenrothes on Tuesday to discuss the cuts, which they described as “unacceptable” and “ill-judged”.

In a letter to its members ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, the Fife LA EIS Executive said: “These cuts are going to impact on every secondary teacher in Fife.

“The work that these promoted members do has to go somewhere. It will either be passed to those promoted members who are already struggling with their remits, or to unpromoted staff who will be expected to undertake these tasks for no extra remuneration.

“It is our belief that this will lead to increased workload and concomitant increase in stress.

“We are in the process of arranging a public meeting to which parents, local politicians, teachers and members of the public will be invited.

“It is vital we win the educational argument – can you do more with less? The simple answer is No. Our anger is against what we believe is an ill-judged cut – a cut that our headteachers have been placed in the unfortunate position of having to impose.”

EIS publicity officer David Farmer said they were planning an open meeting where they hoped to raise awareness of their concerns.

“We would be inviting along members, parents and councillors along,” he explained. “I am aware that there is an online petition already as a number of parents have picked up on this in respect of what is happening to their own kids.”

On Saturday, hundreds of Fife EIS members attended a national march in Glasgow as part of an ongoing fight for a 10 per cent pay rise.

Mr Farmer said those taking part were also concerned about the impending cuts.

“There were a lot of young teachers from Fife there and I was speaking to a number of them,” he added. “The reason they were there was not all about pay, although they were obviously supporting the campaign.

“A couple of them said to me that Fife Council are proposing to take away our promotion chances and my answer to that is yes they are. How can you recruit people in the secondary sector if what you are basically saying is once you get to the top of the teacher pay scale, you will be there forever?

“It is not just about money though. It is about career development and responsibility and all sorts of issues.”