Based on false premises

In response to Chris Mackie (Posturing MSP; SN 12/03/15), may I point out that the Shetland school closures argument isn’t just about whether children could be educated more cheaply but more effectively, which has not been demonstrated.

It is also about councils’ fundamental duty to sustain and develop rural communities, as opposed to tearing them down by closing schools.

Furthermore, the SIC’s stated aim for the project was to “bring Shetland’s cost per pupil into line with those of Orkney and the Western Isles”. Shetland’s cost per pupil was claimed to be 40 percent higher.

Thanks to the efforts of people like Mr Sansom, it emerged that, in fact, Shetland’s cost per pupil was already, more or less, in line with those of her island neighbours so the objective had already been achieved.

The Blueprint for Education was based on false premises.

Had the project continued to completion, with the target saving of £4,000pa per pupil, Shetland pupils would have ended up with only £6,000pa per pupil, not far above the national average, itself heavily distorted by the weight of populations in the Central Belt and East Coast of Scotland, and more than a third less than pupils in Orkney and the Western Isles.

Meanwhile, it was by no means clear that the rationalisation proposals would actually achieve the target savings.

Once the truth about the cost per pupil emerged, the project was dead in the water and those attempting to revive it must know that.

What we are seeing in these final throes of this “danse macabre” is a desperate attempt to save face and avert the instigation of any inquiries, at least, until the next council elections when, no doubt, the leading “dancers will leave the floor.”

John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar