Letters / Bigger isn’t better
The education of our children is something that Shetland should consider very carefully. Rather than throw away schools that have a proven record of excellence in favour of the economies of scale achieved by centralisation, we should look at ways to emulate and encourage them.
There are already pupils who have to be accommodated in a hostel because they live too far away from an existing school to travel every day.
Instead of sending them to Lerwick, why not send them to Skerries, Olnafirth or any of the other outlying small schools and pay to house them with local families? Such a scheme would have the following benefits:
- they could expect a better education;
- they would be in a family environment;
- they would be less likely to be exposed to drugs and bullying;
- the community would benefit from the financial input;
- the community would be more stable and better able to attract new blood;
- small schools would be better used;
- bairns in those schools would have the chance to interact with others from outside their community;
- the existing central hostel could be sold or put to another use.
So, the SIC could support fragile outlying communities and their exceptional schools, whilst at the same time probably saving money.
The idea of taking more young children away from their families seems positively barbaric and the long-term cost of closing a school is inestimable for the community.
Technology now enables people in remote communities to work from home. We should be looking at distance learning to prepare our bairns for that future.
Let’s not kid ourselves that these cuts are driven by anything more than financial expediency.
As far as I am aware, there is no proof that bigger is better in education – in fact recent results show the opposite.
As Britain plummets down the international league tables for education, we should seriously question the value of that ideology.
Shetland is a small place. It has proved that small schools can get superlative results. Let’s do what’s best for our children, not what Edinburgh, London or Brussels want to impose on us.
Stuart Hill
Ocraquoy
Cunningsburgh
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