SMALL SCHOOL CLOSURES

The news that Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) is continuing to push ahead with its School Closure Programme with Llanover and Govilon Primary Schools being in the firing line will surprise few people in the county. MCC might well make much reference to the consultation process and the need to save money but this is being driven by their own agenda, which will result in the county council gaining financially in the short term but the pupils, parents, teachers and their local communities losing out in the long term.

MCC has made much of the financial savings that may be made in respect of Llanover (£121,000) and Govilon (£134,000) but little has been mentioned about any windfalls that will come MCC’s way when it comes to disposing of the sites, and even less about the County Council’s role in any future planning applications on the sites of the schools if they are closed.

There is a degree of irony in that if MCC pursues its goal of disposing of former school sites for housing then one result will be a rise of the number of children eligible to attend local schools that will have little option but to join their fellow pupils on the ever longer school run.

The local community loses out doubly, as what has been described as the focus for the community disappears and also any access to local facilities in the shape of the school building and its grounds are gone forever. The small school closure programme the effects of which are being felt across all of Wales means that in the event of a growth in pupil numbers that the costs of a new build programme, as opposed to a refurbishment programme will be far more substantial over the longer term than any exceptionally short term gains.

Monmouth County Council and many other County Council’s across Wales are busy making questionable short term decisions about closing small schools which will have long term consequences for many of our communities for many of our communities. Whether or not our County Council’s (MCC included) make these decisions is one matter, another which should cause even more concern is whether or not the National Assembly rubber stamps such closures with the bare minimum of concern for the consequences of small school closures on the pupils, parents and teachers and our communities.

It is time for Monmouthshire County (MCC) (and the other County Councils across Wales) and the National Assembly to suspend the small school closures programme, to take the medium to long term view and actually to work to support pupils, parents, teachers and our communities.