We would urge our readers to consider the articles and comments posted on the Facebook page “Highland Action Group for ASN & Education” Recent press coverage of the Highland Council's intentions has caused a degree of alarm among parents (BBC article here).
A PSA who works in a Highland School told the Gurn:
Highland Council hope to avoid redundancies as they ‘re-allocate’ resourcing of Pupil Support Assistants, these reductions are to be phased over the next three years. As a Pupil Support Assistant this is an extremely worrying time for our positions, the children and the parents who need these services. Hitting the most vulnerable group undermines civil society. The implications of these cuts are huge, these are the things that hold communities together. The Unions seem to be managing the process rather than fighting it.
I don’t know what the Chief Executive’s vision is for the end of these three years, nor what schools in the Highlands and a new Nairn Academy will look like that do not address the needs of every child.
The more I read the information we were given the more ‘doublespeak’ I find. Even the timing of the council's press release has given us little time to challenge or resist.”
The Gurn understands that a meeting between our four local councillors and the Rector of Nairn Academy plus the primary heads from those schools in the Academy catchment area may take place this week to consider these issues.
As we said in the first paragraph we would urge our readers to inform themselves on this topic, look at the worries and statement of the parents, the information provided by Highland Council, as reported by the BBC, and decide if something fundamentally unjust is about to be set in motion.
"We pick on the vulnerable because they can't fight back" Motto of Highland Council perhaps?
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