News In Focus
2 July 2009
Parents “misled” over law on school placements
The Govan Law Centre says local authorities are misleading parents about their legal rights over school placement requests.
A test case brought by the GLC last year showed that ministerial policies restricting pupil numbers have no legal foundation.
But it says councils are still turning down requests on the basis that they would breach guidelines on pupil numbers.
The SNP had pledged to reduce class sizes in from primary one to three to a maximum of 18.
GLC’s Iain Nisbet said: "There's a concern that some councils are pulling the wool over parents' eyes.
"Parents are being told that the school or the class that they want is full and yet that is not really the case. Where parents are making a placing request or an appeal for a placing request, the class sizes can go much higher.
"The overall limit on appeal would be up to 33 for primaries one to three."