Ghost School
Nice to see the Taffs getting into the spirit of belt-tightening and prudence.
A Carmarthenshire primary school is being told it must stay open at the cost of up to £110,000 – despite not having a single pupil.
Capel Iwan school near Newcastle Emlyn said goodbye to its last 12 children in July. But education officials say the school must be ready to open in the autumn – with a fully paid head teacher.
The assembly government says the local authority must go through the correct procedures before it can be shut. Those processes includes a lengthy statutory consultation period with people in the area, before the issue can be fully discussed by Carmarthenshire council. If there are any objections, then the whole matter must be passed to the assembly government’s education minister to consider.
The whole process could take more than a year to complete.
In the meantime, it would be illegal for the school to shut – even though not a single pupil will be taught in the classrooms at Capel Iwan.
Councillor Gwynne Woolridge, who is responsible for education on the executive of Carmarthenshire council, described the situation as “unfortunate“.
Unfortunate? Not for the Headmaster being paid to do stuff-all for a year, it isn’t.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes this now empty school to become an “Islamic Cultural Centre” .. (as has happened to many such dis-used village schools in England) ..
And should that regrettable idea ever become fact, you may rest assured that the “correct procedures” will vanish like mist on a summer’s morning ..
Procedures can be very flexible things depending on who is asking the question, yes.
Oddly enough this morning I watched the episode of Yes Minister that covered the very important work carried out by the 500 administrative and technical staff at the new St Stevens Hospital, despite there being no patients nor plans to admit them.
It seemed funny at the time.
Life imitating art. Not for the first time.