Sir,
I have been a member of the board of management of Lews Castle College UHI for the past seven years and chair for the past three years, my time to stand down being July 2016. From time to time we advertise for new members and we recruit and appoint as appropriate, to what is a voluntary, unpaid position and, as a legally constituted body responsible for the college and its activities, we have always executed that task with diligence.
From April 2016, an independent member of the UHI administration must sit on the interviews and his/her agreement must be sought before an appointment is made and the university court based in Inverness must approve the process and the outcome.
Colleges across Scotland are locally grounded in their communities, they know potential employers well and relate closely with local schools. I really would like to know why the board members’ recruitment process cannot be delegated to the local college board to implement, after all we are talking about an unpaid position and often numbers applying to join the board are low. The last SNP government cut the funding for colleges and has, in common with its attitude to local authorities, displayed undemocratic and centralising tendencies, the above being a good example.
The Sunday Herald indicated the same is to happen to the schools sector, weakening of the democratic links with the local authority and the establishment of some vague ‘educational regional structure’ to oversee ‘delivery reforms.’ Currently if a parent wants to discuss an issue, he/she goes to the school and if necessary, their local councillor; these regional proposals will weaken that effective, efficient historic accountability link. Head teachers may or may not be allowed more autonomy, if so I suspect strings will be attached and Edinburgh not the local authority will pull them.
I would ask voters next week to consider whether they want further centralisation by voting SNP, or further private sector/shareholder involvement by voting Tory (the model now being discussed in England). A way to maintain the democratic link at all levels of education is to vote Labour in both ballots.
Brian Chaplin
Garrabost
Isle of Lewis
Letter: Undemocratic centralisation of education
26 April 2016