Published: Thursday, 27th November, 2008 10:20
Angry parents demand answers on Dunfermline schools
By Gary Fitzpatrick
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Education secretary Fiona Hyslop unveils a plaque to declare Duloch Primary School officially open.
Pic by: Dunfermline Press
ANGRY parents in Dunfermline’s eastern expansion (DEX) are demanding answers on where their children will be starting school in August.
Education secretary Fiona Hyslop officially opened Duloch Park Primary on Monday but, away from the celebrations, local parents hit out at being kept in the dark.
The new school cannot cope with demand and a third DEX school will not be open until August 2010 at the earliest with a location still to be identified.
There are around 120 pupils looking to enter P1 at Duloch next August but only capacity to take 50.
“There is massive disquiet,” said one concerned dad, whose daughter is at the Duloch nursery but has been turned down for a place at the primary school.
He has now heard rumours that the new pupils start their schooling by being bused to Inverkeithing.
“My personal fear is that one group of children will be disrupted and inconvenienced – probably about 180 kids over the next three years for Duloch alone – for all or most of their primary schooling and that Fife Council is doing nothing to reassure us that catchment areas will be rationalised as soon as possible.
“It can’t be right for me to be driving my child – and after that probably her younger brother – past two nearby schools to go to a third as yet unbuilt school, especially when some of those nearer the new school will retain the right to stay at Duloch.
“It is over two miles from my house to the western part of Linburn Road, which is one of the possible school sites.
“Never mind being bused or driven to Inverkeithing for three years in the meantime. It’s a busy road with a lot of accidents.
“The basic objection is that no-one is being held accountable for the mistakes of the past.
"The politicians will be taking the flak but the officials have failed dismally and don’t seem to have learned much.
“This affects kids born after 1st January 2004, most of whom have spent all their lives here and most of whom were here before the schools were built.
“My own child has already attended Masterton and Duloch nurseries.
"Now she is being expected to attend yet another two primary schools over the next three to four years. Yet she has lived in the catchment for Duloch all this time.”
Parents have started a petition accusing the council of having “failed to serve the interests of the people of the eastern expansion by failing to provide sufficient places for Primary 1 pupils who live within the Duloch catchment area from 2009 onwards”.
Douglas Chapman, Fife Council’s education chair, said information sessions were taking place at Duloch to put various scenarios before parents.
The responses would feed in to a report to the education and children’s committee in January, when councillors would make decisions on the eastern expansion.
“Schools like Pitreavie, Canmore and Linburn are all excellent, with a very good record on attainment and ethos,” said Councillor Chapman.
“Some parents may decide to put their children to these schools, which would not only give them security in terms of knowing where their children will be educated but would also later on give them access to Dunfermline High School.
“There are a lot of different factors which parents will consider when making decisions.
“Duloch children of course went by bus to Kings Road initially when their school was being built and earlier the Kings Road pupils went to Blacklaw when their own school was being re-built.
“And so the council has had to deal with similar situations in the past and is good at finding solutions.
“These are difficult situations but it’s how you deal with them. We’ve been having discussions with other schools in the area about accommodation and looking at the possibilities.”
Mr Chapman said it was unclear at this stage if new site options for the third DEX school would be available for January’s meeting.
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