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Minority teachers facing job cuts

31/ 5/2007

EDUCATION services for Asian, black and other ethnic minorities are to be cut.

Dozens of teachers are likely to lose their jobs following a shake-up of Manchester's education department.

Bosses want changes to a council-run service for ethnic minority youngsters, which will lead to the loss of about 25 staff.

Questions were raised last month about the role of hundreds of office-based staff employed by the city's children's services department.

Council bosses are cutting red tape in the department in a shake-up predicted to lead to the loss of 140 jobs.

But teachers who work for the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service claim they perform a vital role and will be hit hard.

The unit targets Manchester's large number of ethnic minority pupils and youngsters from non-English speaking families, who are more likely to lag behind.

The loss is down to reforms of the complex funding arrangements for schools.

In Manchester, there are 88 schools with high numbers of ethnic minority pupils which are eligible for extra government cash to provide specialist support. Of these, 66 chose not to get cash, but instead get extra staff from a council-run pool of 106 teachers experienced in language and race issues.

In the past, this allocation has been automatic, but changes mean head teachers would have to opt in to the scheme, or employ staff from elsewhere.

A memo to head teachers admits this will lead to less use of the service, with about a quarter of jobs expected to be `surplus'.

Harry Spooner, Manchester secretary of the NASUWT union, said: "How perverse that when Manchester is at the bottom of most educational tables, it is proposing to disband the one area where it is above average."