Rally to deliver school message
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A MASS show of support is going to be staged for rural schools in Moray under threat of closure.
The public event will coincide with a full council meeting where controversial proposals to radically alter Moray’s education system will be debated for the first time.
The measures, recommended to the council by a firm of education consultants, would see several schools close, others merged and many more children bussed around the region.
Parents and residents opposed to the plans are now being invited to take part in a march.
The rally, which will probably start in Elgin’s Cooper Park, will end outside the council’s offices.
Petitions will then be handed over opposing the consultants’ proposals, which have been branded a "nuclear weapon to crack a nut".
The show of support event is being organised by the Save Milne’s High community action group.
Speaking on behalf of the group which is fighting to keep the secondary school in Fochabers open, Dougie Potter said: "The event is open to anyone who’s opposed to the closure of rural schools.
"The only winners from this education review would be the bus companies.
"We are disappointed but not surprised to see no new ideas in the final report, which is long on theory, short on fact and provides no clear strategy for the council’s stated aim of improving results.
"It appears to hark back to discredited ideas of the previous century about school size and achievement – national exam league tables would bear that out, with many smaller high schools in the top 50.
"The council’s own figures show that the schools in the region are performing well."
He added: "There is a very real sense that the council is in danger of making a drastic and irrevocable mistake in an attempt to solve a problem that doesn’t exist."
The show of support event is scheduled for Monday, November 3.
For more on this story, see this week's 'Northern Scot' print edition
