Local authority chiefs have failed to fully consult on proposals for a replacement Gaelic school in Inverness, a city councillor has warned.
Public consultations are being arranged to update parents on a proposal that could mean the existing nine-year-old multimillion-pound school being closed and a replacement built elsewhere in the city to cope with the unprecedented demand for bilingual education.
Yesterday the region’s education chairman Drew Millar said he envisages the potential move will help ease the pressure on English medium school rolls.
But Inverness councillor Alasdair Christie said he felt little detail on the proposals had been provided.
He said: “I’m not aware of any other sites that are available in the area. If the school is moved it would be inconvenient for a lot of parents and families that have perhaps selected the school on the basis that it’s providing Gaelic medium education at that location.
“Conversations haven’t been had with the parent-councils of all the schools impacted and the local community and people need this information.
“A report to last week’s education committee meeting implied that we might be further down the road than we are. It’s a question of involving parents.
“They’re saying the Gaelic school is a key part of the review of Inverness schools. The only way it’s a key part is if there’s a relationship between English medium and Gaelic medium in terms of provision.
“If there was no Gaelic school in that part of Inverness the children accommodated there would have to be accommodated at other schools, presumably around the same area of Inverness, and the majority of those schools are full.”
Mr Millar insisted that parents would be fully consulted.
“To be fair,” he said, “I don’t think anybody could have estimated the popularity of bilingual education.
“That’s why one of the proposals acknowledges that there may be the need for a two-stream school.”
He said city councillors were briefed recently on the issue and that a new school on a different site could, in time, be expanded into a two-stream school.
The existing building could then be used as an English medium school to help address future pressures in the surrounding schools.
“I believe officials have already had some discussion with some members of the parent council but this will need a consultation exercise,” Mr Millar added.
“We know there’s a huge pressure on English medium schools. We also know there’s an ever increasing demand for Gaelic medium education and that the existing site is at its capacity already for further extension, so they’re going to have to look at that.”
