The online campaign, kickstarted by mum-of-one Louise Barrowman, gained phenomenal support as the public responded angrily to West Dunbartonshire Council’s controversial plan.

The petition, which called on the council to overturn the ‘devastating’ decision, stated: “The councillors at West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) have taken it upon themselves to decide that our schools have to drop half an hour every day in order to save money.

“I feel this will be detrimental to our kids’ education and the future of West Dunbartonshire. The kids are the future and they should find some other way of saving money.

“Working parents are most likely to be affected by this as you just can’t change your hours in order to suit a drastic change. This must not happen people.” The Reporter can reveal that teaching union EIS was considering industrial action and the area’s MP Gemma Doyle, Labour, also meet with parents.

The cut would have resulted in 30 minutes being removed from the school day each day at primaries across the region — adding up to almost a month less per pupil per year.

At the budget meeting the council’s Labour administration said primary school classes would start later at 9.30am but breakfast clubs would be extended to cover the half hour gap.

The administration said the reduction would not eat into class time but would mean a reduction is so-called golden time and school assemblies.

Following the meeting the council’s education chief Terry Lanagan sent a letter to all parents of children in primary schools in the area and those with three and four year olds at nursery.

He told them: “The 9.30 am start is not the only possible model. For instance, it would also be possible to end the school day at 2.30pm each day. Or we could keep the current hours of 9am to 3pm from Monday to Thursday but to finish the school day at lunch time on Fridays. Other patterns are also possible.

“In implementing this change, the priority of schools will be to ensure that we continue to provide a high quality of education for your children. In order to achieve this we currently have a group of experienced head teachers working on a set of guidelines. This will ensure that teaching time is deployed in a way that achieves the maximum educational impact.

“I hope you will understand that the council faces some very difficult choices in the current financial climate. However, the council is committed to arriving at a solution with which parents are comfortable.” Council education chiefs planned on launching a consultation on the proposed changes next month, with the intention of cutting the school day in phases, P1-3 this year, P4-5 next year and P6-7 the following year.

Teachers’ union EIS strongly opposed the move, with leader Larry Flanagan saying: “The idea that children’s educational experience will be enhanced by literally decimating the time they spend in class is frankly absurd.

“It is disingenuous of West Dunbartonshire Council to suggest that the time pupils spend with ‘their teacher’ will be unaltered.

“This deliberately plays on the fact that primary classes spend most of their time with a single teacher for 22.5 hours and the other two and half hours in a range of other educational experiences such as visiting specialists (e.g. music or PE), class work with another teacher, assemblies and so on.

“All of this is part of the curriculum; all of this is part of the Curriculum for Excellence approach to the whole child; all of this is learning and growth.

“Why should the children of West Dunbartonshire be provided with a poorer educational experience than children in the rest of Scotland? If this is what is meant by a postcode lottery, the families of West Dunbartonshire are losing out.” At the council’s budget meeting on Wednesday councillor Ian Murray accused the administration of “unilaterally opting out” of talks between COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) and the Scottish Government aimed at securing teacher numbers.

He warned that staffing implications would be “pretty severe”.

Leader of the oppostion, Jonathan McColl, said: “This is the removal of two and half hours of teaching time. Figures from the EIS tell us this could have an impact on more than 30 teaching staff.” Deputy council leader, Councillor Patrick McGlinchey, argued that pupil school contact time would not be cut and education convener Michelle McGinty insisted the council received a letter from Scottish Government Finance Minister John Swinney saying he couldn’t guarantee school numbers.

Independent Councillor George Black said: “Moving the school day to 9.30am does not help those parents that complain the breakfast club starts too late for them to take their children to the breakfast club then go to work.” Highland Council also recently reversed its decision to cut class time after an angry backlash from parents.