School children in one part of Wales could be taught online from home one day a week in order to combat rising energy costs. Children wearing coats in class and leaving staff positions unfilled are also being considered as cost saving measures according to a briefing to headteachers in Powys.
The possibility of more lessons from home emerged following questions by Powys Cllr Beverley Baynham to the cabinet member responsible for education this week. Cllr Baynham said: "In the current economic crisis school budgets are being put under increasing pressure.
"At a recent briefing for headteacher's and chairs of governors suggestions were put forward from officers of how to achieve financial savings. These suggestions included, children wearing coats, not filling vacant positions, finding volunteers to work in schools, consider a four-day week with the fifth day being taught virtually at home."
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Cllr Baynham asked Cllr Pete Roberts, the cabinet member for education, to confirm if children being taught online one day a week was a serious suggestion to which Cllr Roberts said: "As you will be aware there are significant budget pressures on all of us and we are needing to be considering every option regarding potential savings.
"We did suggest the possibility of four-day week with a fifth day being taught virtually as well as blended weeks of learning as extreme cases for consideration."
But Cllr Roberts stressed that there no "clear directive" given to schools to do this and said that a "financial toolkit" was being prepared and shared with schools to help headteachers and school governors discuss how to tackle the financial crisis. He added that the council was helping schools by holding finance surgeries and going through budgets "in detail" looking at spending patterns and "suggesting potential solutions."
"Ultimately it is the decision and responsibility of the headteacher and their chair of governors regarding the school budget and one size does not fit all," he added. Cllr Roberts also said schools would need to produce plans explaining how they will continue with children's education and that they will need to think about "any and every eventuality."
He said that online learning option could "reduce the utilities cost for the schools and lead to a considerable saving" and that like in Covid-19 lockdowns, hubs would need be open to look after some pupils.
"For the past two winters in some instances, a few children have had to wear their coats in their classrooms due to windows being open as part of the Covid guidance and not because the school could not afford to pay the heating bill. With covid increasing, this situation is likely to happen again this winter."
Cllr Roberts stressed that volunteers would not be teaching children: "Not at any point would we advocate volunteers replacing teachers to teach our children. The proposal not to fill vacant posts is only for consideration if the work connected to that post can be covered by other staff in the short term."
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