BUDGET cuts will threaten schools’ capacity to deliver two hours of physical education a week to their pupils, a Helensburgh and Lomond head teacher has claimed.
Alison Palmer, the head teacher of Arrochar Primary School, pled with Argyll and Bute Council leader Aileen Morton to retain the £73,000 physical education (PE) allowance at the authority’s budget meeting on February 27.
But her plea failed as councillors voted to scrap the budget – meaning schools face higher costs as they attempt to deliver PE lessons to pupils.
Ms Palmer told last Thursday’s meeting: “The whole point of the PE budget is to allow swimming pools to be used by schools and for them to get reduced rates.
“For us, it covers the cost of the swimming, transport to the pool and instructor costs. If you cut this by £73,000 it means that the cost of minibus drivers and instructors, and money that the swimming pool makes, will have to come from elsewhere.
“It will have a huge impact. You have allowed swimming pool subsidy [for Islay, Jura and Mid-Argyll] to go through, but what if schools don’t have the facilities? How do you think they are going to work?
“The other issue is that every school in Scotland must provide two hours of PE every week, to every child.
“That means that almost a quarter of the primary schools in Argyll and Bute do not have the facilities on site to provide this. That is a huge number of schools. So where will they go?
“The budget line covers the cost of the halls they hire, so how will that work? How will you allow schools access to two hours of quality PE without this budget?”
Councillor Morton responded: “We are spending over £60 million a year on education and 97 per cent of that is devolved directly to head teachers.
LATEST HEADLINES: Transport secretary quizzed by MSPs over A83 landslides saga
“The reality is that while I accept £73,000 will have an impact, there was only one savings option, relating to fees and charges, which was easy to take. None of the others were taken lightly.
“Ultimately, in the context of roughly 10,000 pupils across over 70 schools, it is a matter for head teachers to decide how they use the budget.
“In relation to the swimming pool subsidy, the service level agreement is reviewed next year, so it is better to consider separately.
“We continue to invest a huge amount of money in education.”
Ms Palmer then said: “We have not got control of that 97 per cent – only a very small percentage.
READ MORE: Arrochar community project is bridging the generation gap
“I have £3,500 a year that I have control over to run a school.
“I understand the hard choices that need to be made, but we are talking about a decision being made impacting on our children’s ability to learn to swim.”
Councillor Morton replied: “As members are aware, we have received additional funding, and what we have highlighted in some of our smallest schools is that we are covering additional costs between £25,000 and £62,000 a year.
“I have raised that with the cabinet secretary, but fundamentally we are spending £811,000 on teacher costs that the Scottish Government does not fund.”
The government says it is "committed to schools delivering at least two hours of PE for all pupils in primary school, and at least two periods of PE for all pupils between Secondary 1 and Secondary 4" and says that 98 per cent of all Scottish schools are currently meeting the target.
READ MORE: Click here for all the latest Helensburgh and Lomond news headlines
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here