ARGYLL & BUTE EDUCATION CLOSURE CRITERA ‘MINCE” SAYS RUSSELL

REPEATS OFFER TO MEET COUNCIL TO FIND A WAY TO AVOID RURAL SCHOOL CLOSURES.

“BACK TO THE FUTURE” AS ARGUMENTS FROM 2000 INQUIRY TROTTED OUT AGAIN

SNP Candidate for Argyll & Bute Michael Russell has described today's Argyll & Bute Council statement on criteria for school closures as “mince”. And he has published information from the Scottish Parliament’s inquiry into a previous round of proposed school closures in Argyll & Bute , suggesting that they indicate the Council is merely re-cycling discredited arguments that are more than a decade old.

Mr Russell said: “The Education Convener’s much trailed statement this morning is, alas, mince. It offers no recognisable educational or rural development philosophy or vision and indeed may place her in some jeopardy of contravening the Councillors code of Conduct as it appears she is admitting producing a personal hit list of local schools which is utterly subjective and lacks considered input from experts.

However of greater concern is the recycling of old excuses for closures which have long since proved to be discredited. For example occupancy level as estimated by Argyll & Bute Council is vastly out of line with estimates of similar sized schools in other areas of Scotland - a matter confirmed by the Scottish Rural School Network . Consequently to use it is an argument is at best daft, and at worst deceitful. In addition the different treatment needed to consider occupancy in rural areas was accepted more than a decade ago but is still being willfully ignored by the present administration in Argyll & Bute.

In June 2000 the Labour MSP Cathy Peattie , as a Member of the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee, undertook an inquiry into a previous round of rural school closures planned by Argyll & Bute Council. She found that the process was deeply flawed and when questioned on the occupancy levels argued by the Council at that stage said:

“The figures of 60 per cent or 80 per cent are not relevant to rural schools, so as far as I could see from the Audit Commission's documents, clear information is not being provided to schools. Bill Magee made the point in his letter to Neil Kay that 60 per cent or 80 per cent is a Scotland-wide aim, but the Audit Commission accepts that its information is out of date—it was produced when Strathclyde Regional Council and the other much bigger local authorities were still in existence. Therefore, perhaps the issues of capacity percentage should be reconsidered.

The guidance that is available for local authorities, including Argyll and Bute, is not as good as it might be. I suggested to the Audit Commission that it reconsider the information it sends out. In a rural area, 60 per cent capacity, or even 40 per cent capacity, is totally unrealistic. That guidance does not help local authorities, nor does it help local people”


Of course the only relevant criteria for rural school closure according to legislation is positive educational benefit. But despite lip service to this issue in the opening paragraphs, the rest of the press release, in so far as it is understandable, features issues of finance and convenience to the Council - it fails to mention anything about education except the vague matter of “sufficiency of provision” which is properly measured by outputs. In the case of most rural schools such outputs - such as HMIE reports and , most importantly of all the achievements of individual pupils - are actually well above average for the area and for Scotland.

I have still to receive the courtesy of a reply from Cllr Walsh, the Council leader, to my offer to meet and discuss a better way for rural education. I repeat that offer now with added urgency given that , by the evidence of today's press release , the Council is digging an ever deeper hole for itself in terms of public resistance to these proposals and in terms of its image.

I also repeat my call for a cross party consensus on a halt to rural school closures in Argyll & Bute , except those that are actually empty. And I must also point out again that the present pre consultation process is outwith statute and seems designed to soften up opposition rather than to create the essential level playing field which the SNP Government put into place with its School Closure Legislation. It should therefore be treated with caution by all those who are invited to take part in it.”