Schools scandal

PARENTS will be horrified to learn that more than half of Scotland’s councils found defects in school buildings during an urgent review of safety standards.

Faults similar to the one that caused nine tons of masonry to collapse at an Edinburgh primary school last year have been discovered in dozens of schools. And, in what is fast becoming a major scandal, it emerged that most of the affected schools were constructed under controversial public-private partnership deals.

Parents are entitled to expect their children will be safe at school. Who could be confident this is so after learning about the number of structural problems detected in buildings across the country?

Parents, pupils, teachers and other school staff have all been badly let down by those who commissioned and provided these buildings. They have also been failed by a regulatory system that appears to have failed to spot the defects before the schools were occupied.

It is essential that necessary repairs are carried out immediately. But putting right what was done wrong is not enough. There must be full reviews of all deals struck before the construction of these flawed buildings. Anyone who fell short of their obligations must be held accountable.

Children are already being let down by an education system that’s consistently producing poor results in literacy and numeracy. That the buildings in which they’re being taught may not be safe is equally scandalous.