§ 3.40 a.m.
§ Mr. John Brewis (Galloway)While there are numerous educational problems in the South-West of Scotland, as my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will know from his constituency experience, at such an early hour in the morning I want to concentrate on only one matter—Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart.
This famous and historic school serves a wider area than the Machars of Wigtownshire. In the last session about one-quarter of the total roll came from the western district of the stewartry. I well remember the decision of the Wigtownshire Education Committee in 1964 to take these pupils from outwith the county. It saved the neighbouring stewartry county council the immense expense of building a modern secondary school in Creetown or Minnigaff, but the Scottish Education Department, which would have had to provide the money for such a school, seems to have completely forgotten this fact. Yet from this enlightened decision to take the children from the stewartry much of the overcrowding problem in Douglas Ewart is derived.
The Douglas Ewart High School has always enjoyed a very high academic reputation, but the buildings are entirely inadequate for the great increase in pupils caused by the raising of the school leaving age and the policy of concentrating pupils from a wide rural catchment area at this school. Next session the pupils at the school will number 856.
The main building is 107 years old, with extensions added in 1928. It has external lavatories, insufficient cloakrooms and ablutions and no library facilities. Annexes, Horsa huts and other buildings in the town have had to be brought into use. There are eight different buildings, some a quarter of a mile or more apart. Several teachers have no classroom of their own, and the administrative difficulties, not to mention the physical difficulties, of running such a school are intense.
944 Yesterday I had a letter from a parent who wrote that her daughter was unable to complete her sixth-year chemistry syllabus because there was literally no room for her in the class, nor could she conduct any chemical experiments for lack of accommodation. She was told to copy the notes of fellow pupils. Obviously her university entrance is gravely prejudiced. I would have thought such conditions unbelievable in 1973.
The Under-Secretary sometimes talks of his "roofs over heads" programme. At Douglas Ewart the roof of the main building, after 107 years, is worn out. Water pours in when it rains. Yet it seems pointless to reslate and relead it. The situation is a disgrace.
Everyone knows how frustrating it is to try to keep up standards in dreary surroundings. Team spirit and morale are important in a school and are bound to suffer. I ask my hon. Friend to consider for a moment the problem of the janitor, who in his ramshackle buildings has to cope as best he can with every form of heating—coke, oil, gas, anthracite and off-peak electricity.
The school is bursting at the seams. Yet back in 1966 it was agreed by the Scottish Education Department that a further 120 pupils from the secondary department at Whithorn Junior and Secondary School should be taken in. At the present rate 10 years later, this will not be possible for lack of accommodation. Here again unnecessary extra expense is involved. In a secondary school of only 130 pupils the pupil-teacher ratio is very low, while at the same time the breadth of syllabus is severely restricted. The Whithorn pupils are being put at an educational disadvantage by not enjoying the comprehensive range of Douglas Ewart.
In view of these facts the postponement of phase two of the building programme has been a disastrous decision for the whole of mid-Galloway. As long ago as 1966 it was agreed that the rebuilding of the school should take place in phases. It would have been far better if a complete new secondary school had been provided, as was the case in Stranraer. The proposals contained in phase two were agreed with the Scottish Education Department at least five years ago. Then it would have cost £390,000, 945 but as a result of the continuing delay the costs will have risen enormously.
Phase two includes new classrooms, an assembly hall, library, staff rooms and administrative rooms, all of which are vital to the school. I cannot overemphasise the indignation expressed locally that my hon. Friend's Department has not allocated a single penny to Wigtownshire for its main primary and secondary programmes in respect of 1974–75. I have had letters from many local organisations varying from the presbytery to the Rotary Club. They feel that the education of the children is being prejudiced, and I entirely agree with them.
I must also mention the postponement of the new school at Belmont in Stranraer. Once again the replacement of a 100-year-old school is involved, though the area is now the site of a new housing estate. Here the education authority intended to provide nursery education and also a social centre, which of course it cannot do without any money to build the school.
I believe that my hon. Friend knows also of my grave dissatisfaction with the state of the A75 road through Galloway.
Reverting to school building, my hon. Friend has been very successful in getting money out of the Treasury. During the last two years £30 million has been made available through the public works scheme, and in 1974–75 the total amount available for school building in Scotland will be £54.5 million, compared with £44.4 million this year. I congratulate my hon. Friend on those figures, but it makes the nil allocation to Wigtownshire for new schools even more extraordinary, perverse and incomprehensible.
In the recent White Paper "Education in Scotland: A Statement of Policy" it is stated in paragraph 43 that
the majority of primary and secondary pupils … are now housed in schools that have been built or improved in the past 25 years.Tonight I am speaking not about 25 year-old schools but about schools more than 100 years old. I cannot feel that the Scottish Education Department has taken this sufficiently into account in deferring phase two since 1968.Yet the urgency of the case has been repeatedly brought to the attention of 946 the Department. In April 1972 a delegation from the county council went to St. Andrew's House. In a letter to me dated 5th May 1972, my hon. Friend said that he would bear in mind the unsatisfactory state of Douglas Ewart. As recently as May this year the district inspector was optimistic about phase two being in the 1974–75 programme.
Something clearly has gone very wrong indeed. Why was phase two excluded? Will my hon. Friend now do his sums again? We simply must have a sum to get Douglas Ewart started in 1974–75, even if it is only enough for extra classrooms. Then we must have a promise that the remainder of phase two is firmly in the 1975–76 programme. Can my hon. Friend give me assurances on both those points?
§ 3.49 a.m.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Education, Scottish Office (Mr. Hector Monro)I am glad that my hon. Friend the Member for Galloway (Mr. Brewis), who has a particular interest in and a great knowledge of education, has spoken about the Douglas Ewart High School at Newton Stewart, because it is right that we should take an opportunity such as this to discuss the difficulties that undoubtedly arise in administering the central Government's control of capital expenditure of local authorities.
Every administration since the war has found it necessary, as part of its management of the national economy, to impose some limit on the share of national resources that is absorbed by the capital expenditure of local government. Even when we have a really forward-looking White Paper on education, to which my hon. Friend referred, there must be some restraints on capital projects in the years ahead. As he knows, these plans mature slowly, and it is not surprising that I have to go back to 1964 which my hon. Friend mentioned as the period when the two education committees of Wigtownshire and the stewartry agreed to develop the Douglas Ewart High School. Then one moves to 1966 when the former Secretary of State approved proposals submitted to him by Wigtownshire Education Authority for the long-term reorganisation of its provision for secondary education in the county.
947 A feature of these proposals was the concentration in a single school of all secondary pupils from the Machars area of the county in the Douglas Ewart High School at Newton Stewart. The longterm aim was that the high school, which is a six-year all-through school, would be rebuilt on a scale which would enable it to take the pupils hitherto accommodated in the three-year secondary school at Whithorn.
The project was a big one, and it was decided in the time of the previous administration that it should be undertaken in two distinct phases. The first of these phases was needed as a roofs-over-heads project—that is to say, for the provision of accommodation for pupils, including pupils staying on as a result of the raising of the leaving age, for whom places would not otherwise have been available. This phase of the project, therefore, had high priority and it was started in September 1969 and completed in September 1971. It provided accommodation for science, technical and domestic subjects, social studies and school meals.
The second phase, which is estimated to cost some £390,000, is needed to enable the authority to close Whithorn Secondary School and to bring the 140 pupils at present accommodated in that school into Newton Stewart. There is also a need to replace temporary classrooms and to provide modern specialist accommodation for music and art. There is no argument about the desirability of the Whithorn move. Three-year secondary schools are not generally a satisfactory form of educational provision and I understand that the Whithorn School is no exception to this, in spite of the efforts that have been made by the education committee. Briefly—my hon. Friend is aware of this—the trouble is that in a school of that size it is difficult to provide a balanced curriculum that is sufficiently varied to meet the diverse needs of the pupils, and there has, 1 understand, been difficulty in attracting teachers of certain subjects.
The project would, however, be an expensive one, and its claims have necessarily had to be considered against the claims of other schemes, including of course schemes put forward by the Wigtownshire authority. In making this 948 evaluation my Department had to take account of the fact that whereas phase one of the new school was needed to provide roofs-over-heads for pupils who could not otherwise have been accommodated, phase two could not be given high priority on that argument.
The position is that, with the completion of phase one of the new Douglas Ewart High School, the education authority now has accommodation for all secondary pupils from the Machars area. This accommodation is in the new phase one building, in the old buildings of the high school and in the three-year secondary school at Whithorn. As I have already said, it is undoubtedly desirable that the whole secondary school population of this area should be concentrated at Newton Stewart and that all pupils should be accommodated in modern buildings. That is not to say however that the required building project attracts the same high priority as that accorded to the projects that are required to provide roofs-over-heads.
In this connection I am bound to mention the extension of Stranraer Academy, which was needed to provide roofs-over-heads and which accordingly was included in the authority's approved programmes for 1971–72, 1972–73 and 1973–74. It was in the last-mentioned of these years that the authority first sought to secure approval also for phase two of the Douglas Ewart High School. Its inclusion in that year's programme had to be balanced against the final stage of the Stranraer Academy extension and the authority accordingly put it forward for 1974–75. Again questions of priority arose, this time not so much within the county as between Wigtownshire and other education authorities that were also bidding strongly for increased programmes of capital investment, and I had to decide with regret that the Newton Stewart project could not be found a place.
I realise that this decision must have been a disappointment to the authority, to my hon. Friend and to his constituents. 1 was not altogether surprised when the authority said that it wished to come and see me about it. I replied suggesting that it would be helpful if, in the first place, the authority's needs for capital investment were thoroughly discussed with my Department. I am 949 glad to say that this suggestion has been taken up and that a meeting will be held next month.
I have noted what my hon. Friend has said about conditions at the Douglas Stewart High School. Everything he said tonight will be taken most carefully into our considerations. Before I leave this topic I should like to make it clear that, apart altogether from phases one and two of the buildings for the Douglas Ewart High School, progress has been made with a new physical education block comprising a swimming pool, a games hall and ancillary accommodation. This building, which falls under the social and recreational building programme, is to cost £152,000. It was started in June 1972 on an 80-week contract and I understand that it is likely to be completed later this year.
My hon. Friend also made a plea for capital investment for a new school to be called Belmont Primary School, Stranraer. When the education authority submitted in March 1971 the two projects it wished to include in its 1972–73 primary school improvement programme, Belmont Primary School was its second priority. Its purpose was partly to replace the substandard accommodation of an existing school, the Dalrymple Primary School—where there are about 250 pupils in a building about 100 years old—and partly to provide the additional accommodation needed to reduce class sizes in primary schools throughout the burgh. The new school will be located to take account of housing development in the burgh of Stranraer.
In allocating capital investment for that year we were able to provide for the authority's first priority, Drummore Primary School, but the needs of Stranraer were not regarded as sufficiently serious, relative to other competing claims on the available resources, to justify a start being made at Belmont. For 1973–74 Belmont was the authority's first priority, but we were again unable, either then or for 1974–75. to regard its claims as superior to those from other areas.
As I have already said, arrangements have been made, as I suggested, for representatives of the authority and of my Department to meet next month to discuss the situation in the area created by the levels of the investment allocations so far approved, and I understand that 950 Belmont Primary School will be on the agenda. I do not wish to prejudge the outcome of these discussions but I can say that I shall of course consider very carefully, and very sympathetically, the case made by the authority and what action I may be able to take to satisfy it.
I know that, in the broader area of the whole of South-West Scotland, Wigtownshire presently receives the smallest allocation, but including nursery education, which we all want, for the three counties of South-West Scotland the allocations have increased from £1,145,000 in 1973–74 to £1,576,000 in 1974–75.
Turning from education, my hon. Friend gave the impression that the needs of Newton Stewart had not been kept sufficiently in mind when resources were being allocated by my right hon. Friend's repartments. In particular he mentioned roads. I appreciate that my hon. Friend has long been concerned about traffic on the trunk road A75 generally, and through communities such as Newton Stewart in particular. I am glad to be able to assure him that we are not overlooking the needs of this route. It is a road which I know well. It is much affected by the container traffic to Northern Ireland and by the welcome increase in the number of tourists.
A bypass of Newton Stewart has been accepted in principle and has been included in the trunk road preparation pool. This means that preliminary procedural work can be begun. In fact, draft orders to establish a line for the bypass have been prepared and will be published within the next few weeks. Once the necessary statutory procedures have been completed, the bypass scheme will have to find a firm place in the trunk road programme. I hope that this will be within the next two or three years.
On the A75 generally, a continuous programme of modernisation is taking place affecting the whole route from Gretna to Stranraer. Apart from the Newton Stewart bypass, which in itself will cost over £500,000, no less than 17 improvement schemes are in progress of planned in the counties of Dumfries, Kirk. cudbright and Wigtownshire entailing an expenditure of some £3 million, of which about £1 million will be spent on the Wigtownshire section.
951 There are other, if perhaps minor, fields of expenditure that should be mentioned. In June of last year, I approved borrowing consent in respect of an education authority youth centre to be provided at the former annex of the Douglas Ewart High School, and for the new £150,000 block at the school, incorporating a games hall and swimming pool, which I have already mentioned in the context of school building. I should add here, however, that this building and its facilities will be used by the community at large as well as by the school.
Last month I received an application from the burgh council of Newton Stewart to approve borrowing for a sports complex costing over £110,000 to serve the area, and I have this application under consideration at the moment. Finally, I mention that an extension to Cornwall Park old people's home, Newton Stewart, to provide an extra 13 places, is planned to start building this year or next.
I do not expect that what I have been able to say will entirely satisfy my hon. Friend or his constituents, but I hope that I have been able to demonstrate that the needs of the South-West are kept very prominently in mind when resources are being allocated by the departments of the Scottish Office.
I look forward to meeting my hon. Friend to discuss the school building programme after the talks with officials. One thing is certain—that my hon. Friend the Member for Galloway is pressing his case very hard on behalf of his constituents.