The most recent Education Committee has been fairly controversial in some issues, and I felt it was important to get my points of view on the topics raised.

There was a report on Building Fife’s future – The School Estate which focussed on the new High Schools needing built in Fife – totalling 5. I gave my concerns about the practicalities of a super-campus being built for Woodmill, St Columba’s and Fife College and continue to be sceptical of this idea. I also raised my concerns at the formula used for building a new High School to deal with the increase in housing in Dunfermline, based on the fact that in the past this has been wildly innacurate.

The most troubling issue though was an attempt by some Councillors to completely prioritise building a new Inverkeithing High School with an ammendment they put forward. I was unhappy as this was not an officer recommendation and was very close to the by-election in Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay. I managed to water down the ammendment to ensure plans were brought forward to replace all schools that require replacement, including Woodmill and St Columba’s.

Another report where I had some issues in was Early Learning and Childcare. I welcome the increase in nursery provision, but I raised concerns in the report that Fife Council projections and the Scottish Government projections were differnet on a number of factors (Scottish Government projections were less), which my worry could be that Fife Council loses out in funding.