Eriskay School to close this month 6/6/13
Eriskay School is to shut for good at the end of this month.
Parents with children at the school have opted to voluntarily move pupils to Daliburgh
School.
There are eight pupils in the school at present and the number of primary age children
on the island was likely to remain steady for the coming years.
Eriskay is said to be the only de facto dedicated Gaelic medium school in the Western
Isles as all pupils are taught through the language.
The closure was initiated after two families - with four pupils - made placing requests
to the Comhairle for their children to be taught at Daliburgh.
The other parents felt the island school would be unviable with the remaining four
pupils so reluctantly decided to also make placing requests.
However, there are also children aged under-five who were expected to attend in the
future.
After the summer holidays, Eriskay pupils will be bussed the eight miles across the
causeway to Daliburgh in South Uist.
Bernard Chisholm, head of Children’s Services at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, is due
to meet with parents this week to confirm transport and other arrangements for the
shift.
A spokesman for the Comhairle highlighted that having no pupils after the summer,
Eriskay School legally remains open
The council is obliged to undertake a statutory consultation before formally shut
the school. This gives the community and parents of pre-school infants a chance to
put forward their views. The closure would be put to a vote at a full council meeting
which will not occur before September and may well be later.
The withdrawal of all pupils saves the Comhairle a massive headache as the local
authority was drawing up plans to axe the school.
The closure consultation process was put on ice because of the Scottish Government’s
moratorium while the special Commission on the Delivery of Rural Education was examining
rural school closures.
There is a local feeling that the closure will not encourage young families or island
couples getting married to stay or move back to Eriskay.
The school will shut on 28 June.