Education councillors have voted to back closure of the very last rural secondary school in the Western Isles.
Despite many hundreds of objections, the isles’ education committee decided 9-
The final decision will be made at crunch full council meeting next Wednesday.
The move would abolish the island’s S2 system where pupils are taught in their own home district for the first two years of secondary school.
Parents are concerned about the extra two hours daily bus travel to the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway and letting unsupervised children roam the town centre at lunchtimes.
They say closure will hit at the heart of the community and destroy a secondary school which works well and delivers excellent education.
But education chiefs say only eight pupils attend Lionel secondary roll at present
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One councillor determined to oppose the move voted against closure from his hospital bed.
Iain Morrison -
Another member wanting to save the school highlighted councillors were “hypocritical” in criticising Edinburgh for centralisation” when they wanted to axe the rural school in Ness, in north Lewis, and shift young pupils to a single large campus in Stornoway.
Charlie Nicolson said campaigners were fighting to “build and keep a rural community alive.”
Council Leader Angus Campbell said: “I am convinced S1, S2 has had its day and is not the best way to deliver Curriculum for Excellence.”
He stated councillors needed to show a degree of leadership.
He said: “Our duty as councillors is not to look at the noise around things but to listen to the facts.”
Cllr Kenny Macleod retorted: “We have a moral duty to represent our electorate.”
“If we didn’t listen to people in the community, we wouldn’t be here.“
Mr Macleod maintained there were 12 pupils poised to enroll at the school and numbers would rise in the future.
He blamed a recent decline in the school roll on the council creating uncertainty amongst parents by removing the head teacher’s post and slashing the sixe of the school’s traditional catchment area.
Mr Macleod stated smaller class sizes for S1/S2 were a “huge advantage and keep children in their community at an important stage of their lives.”
“I don’t believe the (closure) proposal will have any financial or educational benefits,” he added.
Education director Peter Carpenter said the “key issue was quality of teaching” rather than the idea that small class sizes were best.
He said lunchtime time incidents “are minimal” and “not a major problem we experience at the moment.”
Committee chairwoman Catriona Stewart said pupils would access a wider range of subjects through the Gaelic language in the Nicolson.
School supporters maintain the council’s consultation was biased and unfair.
Lionel secondary is the last rural S2 school left in the Western Isles after rounds of savage school closures in recent years.
It was reprieved after a period of roundabout politics.
The council voted to shut the school but reversed that decision in 2012.
Education councillors back closing rural secondary school
3 February 2015