School closures 'a national disgrace'

The union plans to raise the concerns in parliament

Plans to close down specialist schools and put disruptive children into mainstream schools have been denounced as "a national disgrace" by a teaching union leader.

Ian Clydesdale claimed the move was driven in part by the need of local authority "bean counters" to maximise property efficiency.

Mr Clydesdale, Scottish president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, launched the attack in a speech to the union's Glasgow association in which he also criticised the Scottish Executive's drive for "inclusivity."

He argued that this left pupils at the receiving end of "poorly funded efforts to comply with political correctness and Europe's bureaucratic and legal niceties".

'Political correctness'

Mr Clydesdale said many councils produced "well meaning" plans on inclusivity but lacked the money to fund them properly.

"Indeed some have closed down, or attempted to close down, education establishments which specialise in giving the right kind of education to disadvantaged pupils - establishments that have given valuable service to their communities, to the pupils and their parents, over many years," he added.

Insisting on the inclusion, regardless of consequences, of known disruptive and disadvantaged youngsters in mainstream schools is nothing short of a national disgrace Ian Clydesdale

He also claimed local authority "bean counters" needed to maximise property returns by getting as many pupils and teachers into as little space as possible.

"Closing down, in my opinion, means watering down the proper provision for such young people," he said.

"Insisting on the inclusion, regardless of consequences, of known disruptive and disadvantaged youngsters in mainstream schools is nothing short of a national disgrace.

"These young people deserve better than that, and their peers and teachers deserve better than that."

In his speech Mr Clydesdale also claimed Scotland's teachers had been "well and truly suckered" by the ground-breaking McCrone deal on teachers' pay and conditions.

Working hours

This, he argued, had brought newly-qualified teachers into the profession but had also diminished the prospects for promotion for teachers.

His union had not wanted the McCrone deal for England and Wales because it has no statutory force, said Mr Clydesdale.

This had resulted in teachers in England now having "a real agreement," legally backed, to which all schools must conform and which offered guaranteed working hours.

"NASUWT Scotland cannot and will not watch quietly from the sidelines," said Mr Clydesdale.

He said the union would raise its concerns in the Scottish Parliament and in national and local negotiating machinery.