THE SNP government has said it will not build a single new school during its four years in office, prompting accusations that ministers have failed Scottish schoolchildren.
The admission was taken as evidence by the opposition that the SNP's much-vaunted Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has been an expensive failure.
Education secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday announced a long-awaited £1.25 billion school building progr
amme, but said the first primary will not be ready until mid-2011 – almost certainly after the next Holyrood election.
The first new secondary will not open until 2013 and some children will be waiting until 2018 for their new school.
Ms Hyslop also faced questions over why it has taken more than two years for her to announce the package when one- third of Scotland's schools, totalling 832, are officially in poor or bad condition.
Opponents pointed out that the funding package announced yesterday could have been brought forward at any time in the last two years.
"Fiona Hyslop should feel personally ashamed by this announcement," said Labour education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin. "By failing to name even a single new school that will definitely go ahead, she has let down children and communities in every part of Scotland."
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Margaret Smith MSP accused the SNP of "mind-boggling delays".
"We have dragged the education secretary's cat out of the bag," she said. "The SNP is forcing most councils to delay building new schools for up to a decade."
Ms Hyslop said that the Scottish Government had matched the previous Labour/Lib Dem Scottish Executive's pledges and built 250 new schools.
"We said that we would match the previous administration's school-building programme brick for brick and we are – and more," Ms Hyslop said.
Opposition parties argued that these schools were either commissioned under the previous administration or built out of council funds without the involvement of the Scottish Government.
Ms Hyslop also said that the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), which was supposed to pay and construct new schools and was the main cause for the delay, will only act in an advisory capacity and not pay for or build any of the new schools.
Previously her colleague, the finance secretary John Swinney, had pledged that the first SFT-built school would open in the period of office of the SNP administration – but Ms Hyslop's statement made it clear this almost certainly will not happen.
Opposition politicians said that the announcement was further proof that the SFT, which will cost £4.5 million this year, had been "a waste of money and time".
After an onslaught from MSPs in parliament yesterday, Ms Hyslop failed to appear at a press conference on her announcement, leaving it to officials to answer the difficult questions.
In the chamber, Ms Hyslop did not say which schools would be in the first tranche of the building programme, stating that this was a matter for local authorities.
The school building programme will involve £800 million of Scottish Government money, with councils being asked to find the other £450 million.
The £800 million will come from the capital budgets from 2010/11 to 2016/17.
In the first place, it will directly pay for new schools, but it may also be used to fund not-for-profit-distribution (NPD) – a version of private finance initiatives previously criticised by the SNP.
Councils will find their share either through their own funds or NPD schemes.
The programme failed to impress the EIS, the biggest teaching union, which said it showed the SFT had "failed to deliver."
But the announcement was welcomed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. Its education spokeswoman Isabel Hutton said: "This is a win-win situation. It is a win for councils, who have additional money for a priority area and, perhaps even more importantly, it is a win for pupils and teachers who will learn and teach in state-of-the-art facilities."
PROGRAMMETimetable of SFT schools projects:
September 2009 – Announcement of first tranche of 14 secondary schools, tied in with publication of new School Estate Strategy.
By end 2009 – Announcement of first tranche of 14 primary schools.
Mid 2010 – Construction starts on first primary school.
Early 2011 – Announcement of second tranche of both primary and secondary schools.
2011 – Construction starts on first secondary school and first primary school completed.
2013? – Construction completed on first secondary school.
2014-15? – Construction completed on last primary school.
2017-18? Last secondary school completed.
