Scottish Parent Teacher Council backs class size petition

19/01/2010
The Parents' Petition, calling for more choice for parents in education, is being backed by the Scottish Parent Teacher Council. The news comes as the SNP Government admitted its flagship class sizes policy was completely dead and little more than a cynical con to win votes in 2007.

The petition was set up by Graham Simpson, Conservative Councillor in South Lanarkshire and Conservative candidate for East Kilbride at the British General Election.

He did this after South Lanarkshire Council took parents to court last summer to prevent them from sending their children to the schools of their choice. The Council lost every single case.

Now Judith Gillespie of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council has submitted a response to the petition, backing its aims and stating that ‘politicians who decided to cut class sizes did parents a serious disservice when they did not simultaneous[ly] make that reduced class size a legal limit. They ducked the issue because this would have limited the number of placing requests that could be granted and so would have been an unpopular move. Instead they pretended that reducing class sizes was a win-win situation for everyone. It was not and never could be.’



Councillor Graham Simpson says:

“When I launched this I called it the Parents' Petition because it is parents and their children who are let down by councils who try to drive down class sizes and reduce choice in defiance of the legal position.

“I was delighted to support the 18 sets of parents who successfully fought South Lanarkshire Council in the courts last year to get their kids into the schools of their choice.

“Education chiefs in that council were in denial then and they still are.

"Councils should not pick and choose the laws they like and don't like, especially when the SNP's class sizes policy isn't even backed up in legislation. This institutional arrogance cannot be allowed to occur anywhere else."



Liz Smith MSP, Shadow Minister for Schools, says:

"The SNP has admitted its class sizes policy is dead in the water. It was little more than a cynical con to win votes at the 2007 elections. We cannot have a situation where councils pay out huge legal fees because they are being held to ransom by the SNP’s unworkable policy on class sizes.

“This policy has created numerous problems and an additional financial burden. Thousands of parents across Scotland quite properly want the right to choose the best education for their children and the fact that this can be denied by meaningless targets and bureaucratic chaos is completely unacceptable. I am delighted the Scottish Parent Teacher Council feels the same way.”