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News / Communities unite to defend their schools

SHETLAND’S rural communities threatened with the loss of S3 and S4 education in their local junior high schools have banded together to stand against council cuts.

Communities United for Rural Education (CURE) want a “positive dialogue” with Shetland Islands Council to create an “educational strategy” that reflects the islands’ geography.

The group say the council’s plans to centralise education in Lerwick’s Anderson High School will create a two tier system that threatens “the very interconnectivity that glues smaller communities together”.

They warn that transporting youngsters long distances to school and keeping them in hostels during the working week will “erode communities”.

They also argue that the council has achieved its savings targets for the past five years and should not be forcing through such damaging policies.

CURE secretary Gordon Thomson, from Unst, said: “CURE is an umbrella group bringing together all the active groups and individuals to maximise effectiveness of resources and views.

“This is the most important issue placed before Shetland in terms of what we wish our society to be in the future.

“If healthy rural communities are no longer part of the corporate plan then Shetland needs to seriously reconsider how it views herself.”

CURE was formed in the aftermath of the council meeting held on 13 November when the SIC backed a plan by education consultant Don Ledingham to teach all pupils from S3 up in the high schools in Lerwick and Brae.

The meeting witnessed a huge demonstration of parents opposed to the plans in which they linked hands to surround Lerwick Town Hall where the meeting was taking place.

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