Scandal for schools

TO a man like Derek Mackay, who thinks a £453million underspend is modest, £5million is loose change.

But to private schools staring down the barrel of the Finance Secretary mounting a raid on their finances, the money means a very great deal.

Stripping the schools of charity relief on rates, which cuts 80 per cent from their bills, will surely lead to cuts in bursaries for less well-off pupils and to increased fees.

Given the amount Mr Mackay’s plans (officially, there is a consultation, but the direction of travel is obvious) will put in public coffers, parents might well ask if there is an ulterior motive. Isn’t this small-minded class-warrior stuff?

And how shaming that the SNP is targeting arguably the most successful education sector after its disastrous 11-year reign has wreaked havoc on state schools.

Standards, as measured by those international tables from which the SNP has not withdrawn, have slipped.

Rather than raising state school standards, the SNP seems determined to drag down the private sector.

It fails to grasp that the parents of children at private schools pay twice through full taxes with fees on top.

The Scottish Council for Independent Schools (SCIS) says that, in 2017, there were 29,664 pupils in 74 schools. The state sector could not cope if those numbers, representing 4.1 per cent of all pupils in Scotland, had to be accommodated by councils.

Schools under the SCIS umbrella provide £49million in fee assistance, to the benefit of 24 per cent of private pupils.

Some 3.1 per cent of senior pupils receive 100 per cent fee assistance, so the private sector is far from the elitist club too many try to pretend.

Mr Mackay has already claimed there will be no mass exodus from the fee-paying sector, yet another SNP minister uncaringly treating the private sector like a piggy bank to be raided time and again.