In the week that the UK Government is extending its free school meals policy, the Scotsman reports the following:
New education secretary Mike Russell held talks with council leaders about a new deal which, if agreed, could mean 11,000 more pupils in primary one to three taught in class sizes of 18 or fewer by next August. In return, the Scottish Government would give councils flexibility over bringing in free school meals, allowing them to introduce the policy in the most deprived areas first.
It's a flexible solution to a difficult problem but I must admit to being disappointed that the universality of free school meals is being postponed for a policy that had already been appreciated and understood by the majority as not happening in this parliamentary term.
I fear the objectives are perhaps being blurred as the heat of elections starts to simmer. It may be an easy one to let drop down the priority list, but the health of our children and ensuring they understand food and its correlation with performance and fitness should be paramount for Scotland.
Don't get me wrong, in the course of four years things are always going to change and in such circumstances offering the 32 councils more freedom to act as they see fit surely has its merits, and I genuinely don't think this is a reaction to calls from the Opposition that manifesto pledges are going unbroken, particularly as that would involve another being broken to try to solve an unsolvable one.
It'll be interesting to see how opposing parties react to this move because, as Two Doctors neatly points out, you can only object to something that you truly find objectionable.
Labour opposed smaller class sizes and they opposed free school meals for all so they'll see Mike Russell's move as good news, surely?
Then again, as suggested above, I'm not entirely sure that I do...
Carla in bronze
4 minutes ago
9 comments:
Anybody got any news from the count at the Bearsden South by -election (E. Dunb.)? Tories defending against (supposed) Lib Dem challenge. Lib Dems seem to be very optimistic.
Populus have just published their detailed tables.
Populus/Times Scottish split December 2009 (136 respondents):
(+/- change from UK GE 2005)
Lab 37% (-2)
SNP 34% (+16)
Con 13% (-3)
LD 12% (-11)
BNP 3% (+3)
Grn 1% (n/c)
UKIP 0 (n/c)
oth 0
Yet more sign of ‘The Big Squeeze’ in Scotland: the Big Two are going to crush the minor parties in most areas.
The only hope for the Scottish Tories and the SLD’s is to ruthlessly focus all their money and activists on a few key constituencies -> max 5 to 7. All the other constituencies should be forced to fend for themselves.
The Tories have the easier task there. I’d hate to be in charge of SLD strategy!!
http://populuslimited.com/uploads/download_pdf-061209-The-Times-The-Times-Poll—December-2009.pdf
I'm astonished at these kinds of debates.
I mean Brown dished out GBP850 billion to bail-out banks and another GBP 1 trillion plus in epson colour money jet printing so they can keep gambling. None of this he had to do. None of it.
How many school dinners would that buy? How many new teachers? How many deprived areas would that cure? How many rail links for that matter?
Salmond is an economist - this kind of thing should be meat and veg to him. Not so in the land of tea and biscuits nationalism.
Ah well, let the kids eat cake..
SD. Bearsden South count began at ten this morning (I am led to believe). LD always opimistic.
Bearsden South: Lib Dem gain from Tories.
SNP and Labour 3rd and 4th.
Stuart Dickson's Big Squeeze" theory under pressure already.
(and YouGov samples had LD and COn on 19% each)
from vote 2007 site
Bearsden South 1st prefs, LD 1770 Con 1499 SNP 972 Lab 626
in 2007 it was
LibDem 1789 Con 1654 Lab 1305 SNP 1294 Ind 387 Green 349
so SNP vote up about 1% on first preferences so its vote was not squeezed as such
it seams the original figures put on the Vote 07 site are incorrect
the revised figures are
Full Bearsden result
Stage 1
Con 1261
LD 1110
SNP 783
Lab 626
Stage 2
Con 1381
LD 1306
SNP 972
Stage 3
Con 1499
LD 1770
LD gain from Con
that is the 2nd time this year that the Tories have been beaten although topping the Ist pref vote.
excuse the typos! - most stop watching the news and typing at the same time!
I'm not sure I understand the motovation either Jeff.
I feel particularly strongly about school meals, sometimes the only decent thing a kid gets to eat all week, denied him if it is not free. Not only helps in the key buisiness of school....learning, but contributes to the overall weel-being of the child. In the long run it's a huge money saver.
Class sizes at 18 or 20 or 25 whilst prefered, don't matter as much as that. A good teacher can cope. I had some that coped with a lot more than that. If you make the lesson interesting enough, you have 50 wide eyes instead of 36.
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