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Education and Culture Committee 21 January 2014

21 Jan 2014 · S4 · Education and Culture Committee

Item of business

Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

MacKenzie, Mike SNP Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in favour of amendment 408. Indeed, I felt it important to do so, given the real difficulty that the issue of school closures has caused across the Highlands and Islands. I also make it clear that I am sympathetic to the spirit of what Liz Smith is attempting to achieve in amendment 408A.The issue causes difficulty not only for councils, council members, parents, children and communities but, as we have seen, for the courts. For the sake of all concerned, the Parliament needs to take this opportunity to clarify matters. Although the spirit and intention of the 2010 act seem very clear, in practice, the legislation does not seem to have been clearly understood and, for the sake of all those I have already mentioned, we need to take this opportunity to make it clearer.I was disappointed that when Argyll and Bute Council gave evidence to the committee it did not enter into the spirit of candour that characterises the interaction of most agencies and individuals with this Parliament. The committee and the Parliament should have the benefit of learning from the experience of the proposed Argyll and Bute school closures in 2010, because the experience of the parents and communities affected by the proposals differs greatly from the version that the council presented. For example, the community on the island of Luing very quickly showed that the closure of their school would result in pupils having to take a very much longer journey than the guidelines suggested. Moreover, the journey to the next nearest school involved a ferry journey that is often subject to cancellation or delay because of bad weather. As a result, that school was taken off the list of proposed closures, which was very quickly reduced to 25, but similar inaccuracies were found in the proposals for a high number of the other schools.Parents were aghast to discover that the council that they trusted with the education of their children could be so casual about the closure proposals. They were shocked, too, to discover so many mistakes. Instead of admitting its mistakes, the council clung tenaciously to the proposals and, inevitably and understandably, trust then began to break down. Thanks to the good offices of the Scottish rural schools network and the expertise of Sandy Longmuir, from whom the committee has heard, and to the parents’ own diligence in scrutinising the proposals and acquiring their own expertise, the proposals were revealed as increasingly incompetent. Local council members were also disappointed that the information that they had accepted from officers proved to be so untrustworthy. The final straw came when Sandy Longmuir was able to prove conclusively that, far from saving the council money, many of the proposals would cost money. The statistics show that our small rural schools substantially outperform the average school. They are the jewels in the crown of our education system and if they can be saved they should be. They are at the very foundations of sustainable rural communities, as parents, quite rightly, place a high value on the quality of education. Argyll and Bute is one of the few areas in Scotland with a declining population. People are voting with their feet and rejecting the dead hand of Argyll and Bute Council. Parliament must take into account the worst of councils as well as the best of them. I therefore urge the committee to support amendment 408 and the other amendments in the name of the cabinet secretary.

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Education and Culture Committee 21 January 2014

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