Calls for the most remote schools to be saved

THE most remote rural schools should be protected when Dumfries and Galloway Council reviews which educational facilities should close in future, a councillor has argued. It is now widely acknowledged that the local authority will be forced to shut a number of schools across the region in the coming years, primarily due to falling schools rolls and outdated buildings. While every school will be assessed based on various factors, there are many rural schools throughout the region with an uncertain future due to low pupil numbers. However, Mid and Upper Nithsdale Councillor Jim Dempster recently spoke up on behalf of the most rural communities. At the most recent education committee, he said: “I understand there will be another report, a more comprehensive report, on this later in the year. “But we should now be placing more emphasis on the retention of remote rural schools, especially with the transport issues that have come to light recently and trying to get pupils to school. “It’s important that we retain these remote rural schools in their locations rather than try and ship kids elsewhere.” Larann Foss, the council’s schools’ property manager, replied: “What we have is a process that will look at each school, each community, each setting in isolation and within its own context. “So that protection is there within the processes that we have.” A report was tabled at the committee on considerations for a rural education plan, to help shape the council’s wider schools’ regeneration strategy. The document highlighted that “one of the biggest challenges” the council’s learning estate strategy faces is changing demographics and pupil decline. An in-depth report on the development of the council’s schools’ strategy will be brought back to the education committee in November this year.