Letter: Just doing his job

Published on Monday 10 January 2011 15:33

For the past week, parts of the Scottish media have carried accusations that the secretary for education, Mike Russell, had intervened in decisions regarding schools closures by Argyll and Bute Council.

They seemed to support accusations by opposition parties that his position had been compromised by such "interference" to the point that he should be reported to the Standards Commission for supposed "misuse of parliamentary resources".

Such accusations are grave but strike me as excessive and possibly even politically motivated.

As an education authority, East Lothian Council has enjoyed constructive relations with Mr Russell; we feel our discussions have been two-way and fruitful.

When we heard of the proposed scale of school closures in Argyll and Bute, we were quick to raise with both the minister and our colleagues in Argyll and Bute the very different approach we are taking, even though we have schools both as small and as costly per pupil as Argyll and Bute does.

East Lothian's approach eschews school closure because we believe schools are integral to communities and small ones offer disproportionate benefits to pupils. We are investigating shared heads and combining service provision other than front-line teachers.

I believe most other councils, such as Scottish Borders, adopted our view, so only Argyll and Bute was left contemplating draconian closures of 25 schools.

Not having been privy to his discussions there, I cannot make comment upon his meetings, but my understanding was that his motivation was to carry our arguments - which had convinced him of their viability - to those few who might not have realised a less damaging alternative to closures existed.

It seems to his credit that he followed the laudable dictum of John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind: what do you do, sir?" He seems to have been simply doing his job.

Peter MacKenzie

Education & Children's Services

East Lothian Council

Douglas Road

Longniddry