Move to cut school hours in Highland is blocked by Government
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
PROPOSALS to shut Highland schools for half days every Friday appear to have been scuppered by the Scottish National Party.
Highland Council was considering saving around £3 million by reducing the school week by 2.5 hours in a move that would have cut classroom teaching time to 22.5 hours a week.
But the Scottish Government has now announced that new legislation will guarantee primary pupils a minimum of 25 hours teaching time per week.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Angela Constance, said the decision follows teachers’ and parents’ concerns about the possibility of children in some areas receiving less teacher contact time due to local proposals for a shorter school week as part of cost-saving proposals.
Highland Council budget leader Bill Fernie was still examining the announcement at the time of going to press, but he believed it would “knock our proposals on the head”. He said: “It almost certainly will make a difference. If they pass this legislation in parliament that effectively would knock our proposals on the head and we would have to look for the savings elsewhere. We are not completely sure but that’s what it seems. We will need to get in touch with the government today.”
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, welcomed the government’s plan, saying it has always been vehemently opposed to any attempts to reduce the length of the school week “which would serve only to dilute the quality of education in Scotland’s primary schools”.
However, Cosla – which represents the majority of Scottish local authorities – said the move was “political opportunism at the expense of local government”.
Councillor Stephanie Primrose, the organisation’s education, children and young person spokeswoman, said: “The government seems to be suggesting that they have no choice but to legislate for the length of the school day despite not once raising it with Cosla.
“They have had plenty of opportunity to discuss this with us. We met with the Cabinet Secretary to discuss the Education Bill only a few weeks ago and have been in almost daily contact with government as part of the spending review without even a hint to suggest this was on their radar.
“Yet we hear about it only a matter of hours before amendments are submitted.
“This is either bad planning on their part, or a knee-jerk response to an issue that was far from the top of the pile a matter of weeks ago.
“This is political opportunism at the expense of local government, in full knowledge that there is not any evidence which links better education attainment to a 25-hour school week.”
