Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton Constituency, has condemned the Scottish Government for their “callous” cuts to attainment funding.

This comes as a leaked government document reveals that the SNP-led government is planning an overhaul of funding for pupils from deprived areas. The document shows proposals for a redistribution of cash currently earmarked for a minority of councils to all 32 local authorities. One of the five programmes was £43m of challenge funding for the nine councils with the highest deprivation figures, one of which is West Dunbartonshire Council.

Jackie Baillie MSP said:

“That the SNP are choosing this moment to make callous cuts to the poorest children’s education is grotesque and intolerable. It almost defies belief.

“Far from their rhetoric on recovery, they are abandoning any pretence they care about the poorest pupils in the poorest areas.

“This announcement means cuts will be made to education provision in West Dunbartonshire, along with other deprived communities in Scotland, £25.5 million stripped from attainment funding and hundreds of jobs in frontline education now at risk.

“This is a do-nothing Minister, in a do-nothing Government, who simply couldn’t care less.

“This is a betrayal of our children and our future.

“We were told education was their number one priority, but their actions would beg to differ.”