This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Deprived areas to get extra teachers
16/12/2005
Funding of around £62 million to provide extra teachers in deprived areas over the next two years was announced today.
It will be allocated, for the first time, to take fuller account of the impact of deprivation on attainment and according to the levels of deprivation faced by councils.
The funding is part of the drive to meet the Executive's commitment to increase teacher numbers in our schools by 2007. It will also help councils reduce teachers' class contact time and class sizes and employ extra visiting specialists.
Education Minister Peter Peacock said:
"Too many children who are born into poverty find it too hard to get the qualifications they need to make a better life for themselves.
"We know that the broadly equal distribution of resources to councils for education has unequal results. The effect of multiple deprivation on pupil attainment is stark.
"Our education system should give every pupil the support, encouragement and opportunity to be the best they can be and achieve their goals in life. Given our knowledge of the impact of deprivation I have been determined to do more to give children in those areas a better start to life.
"That is why I am taking into account the significant effect of concentrated deprivation when distributing the funds available for additional teachers and I am very pleased the local authorities collectively have signed up to that approach.
"This means that as well as benefiting from the increased teacher numbers, reduced class sizes and reduced class contact time that will benefit every pupil in Scotland, those most at need will receive an extra boost allowing councils to narrow the gap in outcomes for children, improve job and life prospects and help break the cycle of deprivation that has blighted some of our communities.
"Schools in these areas should be able to access new and additional teachers, allowing further class size reductions, home school teachers and provide more intensive support for pupils in most need."
Funding will be allocated as follows:
- 80 per cent based on the traditional Grant Aided Expenditure allocation
- 18 per cent based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- two per cent based on super-sparsity