Building on the Capital's educational foundations

Published on Friday 19 June 2009 10:04

TO SAY that education secretary Fiona Hyslop's pledge to match Labour's school building programme "brick for brick" has come back to haunt her is a serious understatement.

Despite finally making the long-awaited announcement on investment in Scottish schools, she is still coming under fire for a lack of action to tackle the vast numbers of crumbling schools during the two years she's been in charge of the country's education system.

Although 1.25 billion to build new schools might sound impressive, the fact that the SNP government will not actually complete a single new school during its first four years in office has left a bad taste.

Parents and pupils in Edinburgh perhaps have more right than most to greet the news rather soberly after a series of setbacks which have halted the planned programme of school rebuilding.

Parents and pupils of Portobello, James Gillespie's and Boroughmuir highs celebrated news back in December 2006 that they were finally to be revamped, along with St John's Primary in Portobello and St Crispin's Special School.

But less than a year later, the dream of finally seeing children educated in 21st century buildings was thrown into jeopardy after the Scottish Government declared it would not fund the work and the city council would have to raise most, if not all, of the cash for the project.

The SNP's ideological opposition to PPP projects blocked city leaders from coming up with what might be considered an easy way to raise the cash, and their struggle to find the money continued until they eventually announced earlier this year that they would only be able to pay for Portobello High to be rebuilt, with the other four having to wait until 2026 to complete the latest stage of the modernisation programme.

So it's no surprise that parents aren't shouting from the rooftops about Ms Hyslop's latest declaration that the government will build 55 new schools across Scotland between now and 2018.

David Manson, chair of St John's parent council – which is joint third in line for refurbishment under wave three – said: "It's very difficult for us to start jumping up and down about this. They are going to build 55 schools but the council doesn't see us as a top priority."

Since 2002, Edinburgh has seen the emergence of 25 new or refurbished schools. Seventeen were rebuilt or refurbished at a cost of 130 million under the city's first PPP scheme. A further eight were rebuilt under the second project, known as PPP2, at a cost of 180m.

While these statistics might look impressive, critics are quick to point out that Edinburgh's schools have only got into the state they are in now following years of neglect and lack of investment.

Although six years out of date, the last full survey of the school estate deemed almost one in ten schools to be in a poor condition.

As the council has already allocated the 41.5m needed for a new Portobello High through its own resources, James Gillespie's is next in line for modernisation.

Work on the new 1400-pupil Portobello High is expected to begin in 2011-12 with the building being completed by the end of 2013.

As for the other schools, it is likely Boroughmuir will be revamped and extended at its current site, rather than moved out to Fairmilehead, while James Gillespie's will also be refurbished rather than knocked down and rebuilt.

There is a possibility St Crispin's in Blackford will occupy the site vacated when Westburn Primary closes down, although other options are also being considered, while St John's future location is still being debated, with parents favouring a refurbishment on its current site.

In addition to financing the whole Portobello High project, the council has also found 13.5m to pay for "essential maintenance works" at all wave three schools to keep them running until they are revamped or replaced.

James Gillespie's – which was rated by surveyors as the school in the second worst condition next to Portobello – will have 5.4m spent on essential maintenance. Boroughmuir High School will receive 2.9m, while St John's will get 900,000 and St Crispin's 600,000. Portobello will have 3.5m spent it in the interim.

Edinburgh, along with the 31 other local authorities, will have to wait until later this year to find out whether it is to receive a share of the new Government cash, and how much.

For each new secondary built under the new Government scheme, it will pay for two-thirds of the building, while local authorities will foot the rest of the bill. The cost of new primaries will be met equally by councils and the Government. If Edinburgh were to get funding for the four remaining wave three schools it would be looking for up to 50.9m.

City leaders say they are "confident" Edinburgh will get a share of the cash and are committed to playing their part in funding the new schools, though they refuse to speculate on how much they will get.

One thing's for sure, whatever they get – whether it's enough money for just one more school or the full four – it will be welcomed by education bosses, who are currently looking at funding the whole project themselves over a 17-year period.