Two heads are better than one, say teachers

THE increasing practice of appointing one headteacher to run two schools has been criticised by unions.

Teachers' organisations say the move treats rural schools as a "burden" and is simply cost-saving, rather than improving education.

A new survey has found that a total of 113 headteachers in Scotland are running more than one school in 17 local authority areas.

The council with the most shared headships is Highland with 33, followed by 21 in the Borders.

And the research also found that the mostly rural phenomenon for very small schools is now spreading to more urban areas, with North Lanarkshire adopting the policy last year.

North Lanarkshire now has two shared headships in Airdrie, a town with a population of 36,000.

However, major urban areas, such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, still have not adopted the measure, indicating that rural recruitment is a major reason.

East Lothian is also on the brink of adopting the measure, which it says will save up to 24,000 a time.

Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS), said: "This is coming about, not through an analysis that tells us shared headships are good for schools, but by the back door, because some local authorities are having trouble recruiting headteachers - or they are looking to save money.

"I would need to see a lot more information before I was convinced you'd get a better quality of education."

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, warned that the trend would grow as budgets were cut.

He said: "What they are saying is: you are second class, you are a burden."

He added that there was "one single motive" for shared headships - "to save money".

West Lothian Council was adamant that its six shared headships were created to solve recruitment problems, not to save money.

A spokeswoman said: "For small schools with a teaching headteacher, we had to repeatedly advertise headteacher posts - in one case six times."

The survey of all of Scotland's 32 local authorities was carried out by the Times Educational Supplement Scotland.

Problems with recruiting headteachers have been well publicised in recent years.

Many jobs go vacant for long periods, with depute heads unwilling to take on the increased pressure and responsibility for a minimal pay rise.

The stress of school inspections and paperwork is a key deterrent to many.

One of the most controversial joint headships was revealed two years ago, when a Protestant was appointed to run Catholic schools for the first time.

Morag McCreadie was appointed to run St Joseph's School in Selkirk and St Margaret's in Hawick in 2008, because a practising Catholic could not be found to take on the post.

Since then Catriona Finn, a Catholic, has taken over the running of both schools, while Mrs McCreadie still has a joint headship elsewhere in the Borders.