Independent - Letters: We Need Small Schools in our Towns and Cities
Why small works
The Isle of Wight story (”Fight on Wight over closures”, EDUCATION & CAREERS, 13 March) reflects a countrywide crisis. Small schools represent one of the most effective models of education we have created, a perfect antidote to what is termed “toxic childhood”. Though large schools can perform well academically, small schools remain among the best-performing in tests and inspections.
It is either wilful deceit or shameful ignorance for local authorities to undermine parental confidence by making flawed claims such as those heard on the Isle of Wight.
The debate invariably boils down to finance. Unit costs are seen as too high and are said to drain resources from the rest of the system. But small-school costs in even the most rural areas are fragmentary proportions of overall budgets. No studies showing alleged savings from closure ever materialise, whereas there are studies that show transport costs overtaking the cost of keeping the original schools open. And £1,500 per pupil per year per five-mile journey is a lot for an LEA to commit.
Scottish research shows that the buses taking children to schools elsewhere cost more than heating, lighting, cleaning and repairing the buildings to be closed. The Scottish Executive reported in 2006 that children in its smallest primary schools had a 25 per cent better chance of entering higher education than the rest, and that children in such schools from impoverished backgrounds made progress. Their counterparts in big urban schools across the UK remain a sorry cadre of underachievement.
We need small schools in our towns and cities urgently, but must not destroy the successful rural models.
Mervyn Benford, information officer, National Association for Small Schools
Send letters to: The Editor, Education, ‘The Independent’, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS (with a daytime phone number); or fax to: 020-7005 2143; or email to: education@independent.co.uk. Letters may be edited for length and clarity
Source: The Independent
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April 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
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