Leader addresses the school estate challenge in letter to Cabinet Secretary

The Leader of the Council has written to the Cabinet Secretary for Education following on from her statement in Parliament that she will be taking forward further engagement and collaboration with COSLA to explore how the Scottish Government can address the remaining sub-standard condition schools, and schools required due to population growth.

The Council is very encouraged by this and is keen to engage as constructively as possible with the Scottish Government. 

Below are the public stats for Highland Schools condition and suitability.  Nationally, the percentage of schools graded as ‘Good’ is nearly 91%.  In Highland it is just under 20%. 68 (34%) of our school buildings have an overall rating of “C-Poor Condition” and 74 (37%) are rated “C-Poor Suitability”.

Leader of the Council, Raymond Bremner said: “We have 200 schools across Highland. Despite a huge amount of investment in the school estate, the scale of the challenge is just too great for the Council to manage within its own resources, which is why the Council is keen to explore any and all opportunities to enhance the capital it has available for repair and refurbishment as well as wholescale replacement.”