Under consideration PE2103: Legislate to standardise the prescribed learning hours for Primary and Secondary schools in Scotland

Background information

Falkirk Council are seeking to plug a £65m deficit in their accounts over the next 5 years. They have allocated a significant proportion of the required savings, £40m, to Children’s Services and are proposing to finish the school week at 12:30 on Fridays to achieve £5.751m of this. However, this requires a reduction of school hours from 25 to 22.5 hours per week for Primary children and from 26.6 to 24.75 hours per week for Secondary education. This is 10% less than every other Primary school in Scotland, putting the children of Falkirk at a significant disadvantage compared to their peers. Over the course of a child’s formal education in a Falkirk school they would receive 52 weeks less teacher contact time, more than an entire academic year, and yet will be expected to achieve the same standards of grades.

Alongside the hugely detrimental effect on our children’s education, working families will suffer as hours, and thus family income, will have to be cut to accommodate this change.