Parents at a Perth school have called on the council to give their children a building to match the quality of teaching they receive.
Tulloch Primary is one of a number of crumbling 1960s schools assessed as “life expired” and in urgent need of replacement.
Hopes of securing a new school appear, however, to hinge on it emerging victorious from what equates to a competition for a dwindling pot of cash.
Kinross Primary is in a similar position but it has become clear that, at present, Perth and Kinross Council has sufficient funds to take forward just one project.
An independent study of both schools is taking place to establish their individual needs and, potentially, which has the greater demand for funding.
Local councillors fear the loser could have to wait a decade or more before its shot at renewal comes around again.
Speaking to The Courier, Tulloch Primary School Parent Council co-chairperson Alan Esplin said: “Tulloch Primary is a really well-run school. I have personally had children attend there and they’ve all enjoyed the teaching and the environment. It would just be better if we had a building that matched that both for the children and the teaching staff.”
Over the past few years the Parent Council has helped to raise substantial amounts of money, which have been used to improve and enhance the children’s experiences, providing additional reading and writing materials and funding for extra trips.
It has not, however, been possible to arrest the decline of the school building, which is an example of a now-discredited prefabricated design system. With an expanding school roll as new housing has taken shape in the school’s catchment area in recent years, the facilities have come under increasing scrutiny.
“As one of the co-chairs for Tulloch Primary School Parent Council, I can say the fact the funding for the schools will go down to a “play-off” has been a concern to us,” he said.
“This is, of course, a completely unsatisfactory situation, as both schools have equal merits and claims to be replaced.
“In my opinion, when the housebuilders were building extensively in the Tulloch catchment area in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the council should have had more foresight in school planning. Schools such as Tulloch should have been replaced a number of years ago, both in terms of the condition of the building and in anticipation of the increased roll.”
Mr Esplin said the Parent Council has written to the council’s head of education, John Fyffe, to express concern at the state of the building and note the continued rise in the school roll, which he said has exacerbated the issue.
“I made the point that with the school roll likely to remain constant for the next three to five years, at least there would be further strain on the condition of the school particularly if some classrooms became unusable, as some had significant damp issues last year.”
He said the “sympathetic” response, plus support from councillors and politicians, gave him hope the council would work to find a solution for both schools.