'Huge bill' for school repairs

'Massive backlog' of structural repairs

A £1.3bn investment is needed to repair Scotland's schools, according to education directors and councils.

They are calling for more work to be done to improve the standard of school buildings and warn that it could take up to 30 years to deal with a backlog of repairs.

The Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (Ades) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) are due to present their findings to the Scottish Parliament's education committee.

Ades general secretary, Gordon Jeyes, said: "Limits on local authority expenditure over many years mean that most investment is now to ensure that schools are wind and watertight, and comply with health and safety legislation.

Plea for new ways to tackle problem

"Consistently over the last 25 years, local government has been unable to invest the capital sums required to maintain and improve school buildings.

"If education is the government's top priority, much more needs to be done to improve the standard of Scotland's schools.

"At current levels of investment and under existing central government controls, it could take as long as 30 years to address the backlog."

Mr Jeyes said there is an urgent need to explore new ways to tackle the problem of repairs and maintenance.

"That is what the joint submission by Ades and Cosla seeks to do," he added.

'Communications technology'

"The debate should be primarily about how best teaching needs can be addressed in the future, not just about preserving unsuitable schools designed in the 1960s.

"We want to look at better ways to secure investment nationally. We also want to anticipate changes in learning environments, particularly in light of the advances in information and communications technology and the benefits of new community schools.

"We believe the committee's inquiry is ideally timed to take that debate forward and we look forward to working with the committee on this."

"Changes in learning environments"

Mr Jeyes said he welcomed progress being made under public private partnerships.

However he added: "We have questions about its flexibility to meet long term needs and whether it is best suited for relatively small-scale maintenance and refurbishment proposals, particularly in primary schools.

"We want to see consideration given to national or regional partnership initiatives."

He said the government's preference for "ring-fenced challenge" funding and public expenditure rules restricted flexible solutions.

Mr Jeyes added: "Work is currently being taken forward on how best to develop projects which meet the needs of not just the local schools within an area but also community centres, including health facilities, environmental improvements, infrastructure and housing."