A NEW Liberal Democrat council, which scrapped an (pounds) 80m PPP schools plan agreed by the previous Labour administration after taking control last May, has been condemned by education inspectors for failing to tackle the problem of crumbling buildings.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education said, in a damning report, that Inverclyde Council must act urgently to produce new plans and secure funding because pupils' education was suffering and staff morale was being affected.
The report, published today, praised a number of education initiatives and the level of pupil attainment, but said that ''despite the best endeavours of the director of education services and his staff'', there had been major weaknesses in the council's attempts to improve the school buildings infrastructure for pupils' learning.
The criticism was backed by teachers.
Alan MacKenzie, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association and a teacher at Greenock Academy, said the state of some schools in Inverclyde was now ''a disgrace''.
''In Greenock Academy's staffroom, the water is pouring in windows and there is evidence of dampness all over the place.
''Rooms are not even wind and watertight.'' He added: ''The schools are a depressing, dank environment.
''I am sure that affects their (pupil) behaviour.''
The council swung to LibDem control after the party ran a campaign attacking plans by the former Labour administration to carry out the (pounds) 80m public-private partnership initiative to build six new primaries, close 13 primaries, refurbish and modernise 19 primaries, refurbish seven secondaries, and close one secondary school.
Since then, it has run a fresh consultation programme and, this month, will seek approval from its education committee for a different set of proposals.
These will be funded in this case by a mixture of PPP, prudential borrowing and capital funding.
The new proposals would lead to the closure of 14 primaries, construction of five new primaries, refurbishment of 15 others, closure of two secondary schools, construction of one new secondary school, and refurbishment of the remaining six secondaries.
The HMIE report had described as ''unsatisfactory'' the fact that there has not been any action since the original inspection of the council's education authority in 2001, when the poor condition of the school estate was the main criticism in an otherwise very positive report.
It also stated that, although further consultations were being carried out on new plans, ''there remained some uncertainty over the feasibility of the council's preferred funding options for any large-scale improvement plan''.
Duncan McNeil, Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, said the inspectors had praised the previous Labour administration's plans, and they had stated they would have provided ''children and pupils in Inverclyde with high- quality buildings in which to learn''.
Mr McNeil said: ''That the Liberals simply tore these plans up with no thought to the future is nothing short of scandalous.''
Alan Blair, LibDem leader of the council, defended the decision to abandon the previous Labour administration's PPP plans, saying that with PPP companies being bought over by foreign companies, the transfer of risk was ''a dubious concept'', and as Inverclyde's population was declining faster than the rest of Scotland, it was unwise to be tied into a 30-year contract.
He blamed the poor state of the authority's schools on ''25 years of Strathclyde Regional Council under Labour party control.
What the investigation found
Cedars School of Excellence, independent, all-through school
Number of pupils: 29
''There were insufficient facilities for courses in technical education and home economics for secondary pupils and the school did not have a laboratory for science.''
Greenock Academy, local authority
Number of pupils: 921
''For the current roll, there were shortages of teaching spaces for PE and other areas.''
Greenock High School, local authority
Number of pupils: 587
English: ''Teaching units were well designed, very well organised and used effectively.''
Music: ''There was a good range of resources as a result of recent additional funding. Classrooms and resources were well organised.''
Port Glasgow, local authority
Number of pupils: 558
''Some areas of the school required redecoration and some furniture was found to be in poor condition.''
St Columba's School, independent, includes nursery class, all-through school
Number of pupils: 657
''Since the arrival of a new rector in August 2002, there had been a major review of security and extensive new systems were to be installed in both primary and senior schools.''
''A major building programme had brought substantial improvements in accommodation and facilities in the last five years.''
Wellington Academy, local authority
Number of pupils: 545
''Large areas of the building needed substantial redecoration and repair.
Pupils' toilets and school grounds required particular attention. Some floors and stair treads were badly worn and restraints on some windows were not secure or were missing.''
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