The following article appeared in The Scotsman
One of the most vital aspects of a child’s education is to fully involve their parents in the running of local schools. That is why the last Conservative government introduced the School Boards Act in 1988.
Parents and school boards currently enjoy robust statutory rights in shaping the management and ethos of a school. These rights are now under threat and face being disastrously diluted if the labour/LibDem Executive gets its way.
The School Boards Act 1988 has served parents and schools effectively for the last 17 years. The most recent statistics show that of those schools eligible, 89 per cent have a school board.
School boards have certain duties, powers and rights which are enshrined in law, but it is up to each board to decide how it wishes to regulate itself. School board members are involved in promoting good relationships between the school, parents and the local community, appointing senior staff, and approving school finances.
Most significantly, the School Boards Act gives parents the right to statutory representation. Currently the Executive is trying to pull the wool over their eyes by stressing the need for increased parental involvement while conveniently ignoring the crucial issue of representation.
The statistic often quoted by Peter Peacock, the Labour Education Minister, that only one per cent of parents are involved in school boards is a red herring. Parent Teacher Associations exist to enable widespread parental participation in the life of the school. Boards, in contrast, are concerned with statutory representation for parents. The work of school boards is detailed and scrupulous and involves issues of governance and administration which require a commitment which not all parents may be in a position to give.
The Scottish School Boards Association are in favour of some minor amendments to the 1988 Act, for example to update the school board election procedure, but the Scottish Executive are seeking not merely to alter or amend the existing Act, but to repeal it altogether.
Ministers are justifying their plans for the abolition of school boards and their replacement by new ‘parent forums’ on one piece of research based on the opinion of fewer than 200 people who were interviewed and not all of whom are parents.
The Executive’s attempts to repeal the School Boards Act are particularly perplexing in light of the fact that the Act was re-published by the Executive with a new foreword in 2004, which endorsed school boards and stated that they enjoyed a ‘unique position as a mechanism for the two-way flow of information between parents, schools and education authorities’.
The Labour-controlled City of Edinburgh Council recently approved a motion put forward by the Scottish Conservative councillor opposing the abolition of school boards. In fact, 90% of Edinburgh schools have school boards. The council’s education group condemned the Executive’s proposals as vague and unnecessary.
This pattern is being replicated across Scotland as responses to the Executive’s consultation flood in. MSP’s from all parties have been receiving representations from individual parents and school boards themselves, speaking strongly in their favour. Those who support the current system must keep up the pressure on Ministers. The Executive must not be allowed seriously to erode the rights of parents to act as real partners in the management of their children’s education.
James Douglas-Hamilton MSP.