Education bosses redeployed a much-needed computing teacher to a “pet project”, leaving pupils without a specialist to get them through their exams.
The Press and Journal previously revealed that teenagers at Lochaber High School will face their computing prelim in January – but have not received any specialist teaching this academic year.
Classes have been monitored by supply teachers who are “effectively babysitting pupils” and have no expertise on the computing studies course.
And now, it has emerged that Highland Council has appointed the popular former teacher to oversee the roll-out of the Highland Chrome Pilot – a project which sees pupils working with chromebooks, which are laptop-style devices.
It is understood that the former teacher still spends some of his time at the school in his new post.
An angry parent, who doesn’t want to be named, said: “They chose to redeploy the teacher who was in post to do something else within the council.
“They didn’t have a replacement teacher appointed or someone in mind when they did this. Now the children have been without a teacher since September.
“The management of the council seem to be prepared to sacrifice these children’s education to see their pet project rolled out.
“People up high in the council made this decision knowing that computer studies is a specialist subject and its difficult to recruit in Lochaber.”
A council spokeswoman said: “It is not appropriate for us to comment on personnel issues.”
Kate Forbes, MSP for Lochaber, said: “Given that there are scores of pupils sitting the Higher and National Fives course who have gone from summer to winter without a subject specialist teacher, and with exams approaching, I deem this an educational emergency and Highland Council must act now.
“I believe it is a reasonable request for the council to second the previous computing studies teacher back to the classroom, even on a part-time basis, as a temporary solution in these exceptional and unfortunate circumstances.
“Many of these pupils need good grades to get onto university courses, and it is difficult to see how they can learn effectively without the input of a subject specialist teacher.
“I am still struggling to understand why some sort of Skype or video-conferencing facility has not been set up so that a computing studies teacher in another part of Highland Council can deliver the course remotely.”
