£1m taxi bill for pupils to take classes at other schools

Almost £1 million was spent on taxi fares by Scottish councils in a single year to shuttle pupils between schools to study extra subjects.

The Scotsman can reveal North Lanarkshire Council spent more than £290,000 in the previous school year ferrying students to other schools – the most of any council. Renfrewshire and Aberdeen councils were among other major spenders.

Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith blamed a crippling teacher shortage, saying the crisis was stopping schools running certain classes.

Scotland’s councils are paying almost £1 million a year in taxi fares to transport children between schools to take additional subjects not on offer at their own school.

A total of £918,768 was spent in the last school year on taking pupils from their own school to study a subject that is not available to them otherwise. The information was obtained by The Scotsman via a Freedom of Information request.

North Lanarkshire Council spends the largest amount on ferrying youngsters between schools at a cost of £290,499 a year – more than double the next highest council, which is Renfrewshire at £118,099.

However, North Lanarkshire said it ran a scheme that actively encouraged pupils to take subjects at other schools. The council said the programme allowed youngsters to expand their skill set and study for vocational courses which will lead to a career while still learning the core subjects at their base school.

Aberdeenshire Council also spent more than £100,000, forking out £116,905 a year, covering a total of 419 taxi journeys.

Meanwhile, South Ayrshire pays out £92,541 a year and Falkirk Council £70,067 a year.

Figures from East Dunbartonshire Council showed the local authority spent £26,125 between August 2016 and May last year. The council said it could not provide figures for the entire school year as the responsibility was handed to individual schools in May.

Opposition politicians warned the high costs in many areas were symptomatic of the teacher recruitment crisis faced by Scottish schools, saying that some have had to cut back on the number of classes available due to a lack of staff.

Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman, said: “What we are increasingly seeing as a result of the crippling teacher shortage is more schools admitting they cannot continue with certain classes.”

A total of seven councils said they had not spent anything on transferring students between schools to attend classes. A further four councils in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Angus and South Lanarkshire said they were either unable to provide or release the information.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “While the responsibility for the delivery of education, including pupil transport and managing budgets, rests with individual local authorities, we encourage schools to work together to offer pupils a wide range of educational opportunities.”