YSGOL Penweddig in Aberystwyth faces losing a “teacher a year” as it struggles to pay off Private Finance Initiative contracts.

The school was the first in Wales built using a PFI scheme agreed with Ceredigion County Council in 1999 with a 30-year lifespan.

But it has since emerged that the council will have paid almost £59m when it takes over control of the school when the contract comes to an end in 2030/31, despite the school value being just £12m.

A meeting of the council’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee discussed a report on the latest status of the PFI from Steve Johnson, corporate lead officer for finance and procurement.

Also at the meeting was the school’s chair of governors, Mark Rees, who told members that the school had approached the local education authority (LEA) on a number of occasions about issues on how the current PFI contract is managed and the “impact it has on the management of the school”.

“There’s serious negative impacts on the finances of the school that then has a knock-on effect on its future, and indeed the future of Welsh medium secondary education in Ceredigion,” said Mr Rees.

He added that the LEA contribution to the PFI costs had not risen with inflation in the last five years so the school was having to find increasing amounts to “meet the shortfall.”

Funding this meant savings “equivalent to one teacher per year” had to be made.

“We estimate as things increase, by 2021 it’s going to cost us two teachers within each financial year. It’s frightening and completely unsustainable situation for the school to deal with,” he added.

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