Dalry Parent Council respond to media coverage of cost per pupil at Dalry Secondary

In light of the recent press coverage of cost per pupil for Dalry Secondary, the school’s Parent Council felt it was important to give some balance to the figure; a figure which it is felt is not entirely accurate, and which has been taken out of context.

The Parent Council feel that there are a few areas that need flagging up. They would ask the Education Department – why have you allowed this to happen? Why have you not taken action to mitigate this? 

If there is an issue with the cost of a service, surely it is the fault of the way that service is managed, and those managing it – in this instance the Education Department – and also the duty of that department to resolve. Removing a vital services from our already tenuous rural communities is most certainly not the solution - but that seems to be the only suggestion forthcoming from the local authority. How does this response tie in with regional and national policy on mitigating rural depopulation?

We also have concerns over the way in which this figure has been taken out of context. While this figure may be technically accurate based on the current costs and school roll for academic year 22/23, it does not take into account any of the additional context to how the figure has been derived, nor how it translates into real term costs to the taxpayer.  Utilising the statistics provided in the recent Local authority publication, it has been possible to derive some additional context in which to place this headline figure:

• Dalry Secondary currently accounts for costs of £816,362, placing it as the least expensive school in the region by a significant margin, where the median cost for the 22/23 academic year was £3,244,915 across all secondary provision

• Of the entire expenditure across the region, Dalry Secondary contributes to the overall costs of the region’s secondary education provision by only 1.5% of the total

• At 100% occupancy, the cost per pupil at Dalry School would be significantly lower, at £3291, giving an effective wastage figure of £747234*. Although this is a high proportion of the overall budget for Dalry, when we compare it against the regional picture it again places Dalry among the least expensive in real terms, with the highest being Dumfries High School, Stranraer Academy and Dumfries Academy, where utilising the same comparison we see a combined wastage of £5,164,003* spent on unused spaces.

• As a region, the unused spaces cost the taxpayer an estimated £19,720,306*, of which Dalry contributes 3.79%. As a comparison, the three schools mentioned above account for 26% of the overall.

[*Wastage calculated as the difference between filled and unfilled spaces at 100% occupancy per-pupil costs as of 22/23 expenditure]

Click to download.

Included here is a graphs and further elaboration on the context of the school figures.

We wonder why this cost been put into the public domain not once, but frequently, over the past few weeks. It has been mentioned in articles in the Galloway News, The Herald and the BBC. What is the intended purpose of the council spokesperson suddenly choosing to focus on this cost, when it has never been referenced previously in the press? When there are such a small number of pupils in attendance, this focus on ‘them’ costing such a significant figure is bound to make them feel stigmatised.

Stewart Gibson, Chair of the Dalry School Parent Council, said:

“The Parent Council was disappointed to see the report by the Education, skills and Community Wellbeing Department , which is due to be seen by the Education and Learning Committee, was released last week. The figures in the article were very vague, and lacked a substantial amount of detail. Whilst cost is always a consideration, every child in Scotland is entitled to a Secondary education. During the whole engagement process, we have been told that the quality of education of our youngsters is the only focus, and cost is not a driving factor. This does not now seem to be the case. Remote rural schools such as Dalry are offered a degree of protection from closure, in order to combat rural depopulation and encourage people to settle in the Glenkens. We are looking forward to working with Council Officers to help develop a more efficient learning campus, within the Glenkens.”

Emily Wall, Depute Chair of Dalry Parent Council, said: 

“What has not been addressed in the recent press coverage of the cost per pupil figure is that Dalry Secondary School is in a partnership with Castle Douglas High School. We share the same Headteacher, Depute Headteachers and over 50% of teachers budgeted to Dalry, also teach at Castle Douglas High School. It would be interesting to see if the figures stated show the correct split of teacher time and cost.”