A COUNCILLOR has called for cash to be taken out of Dundee schools following a fraud case which saw an administrator scam £30,000 from Baldragon Academy.
Barbara Donald was jailed for eight months in July after she admitted embezzling the money over three years to pay off debts of £25,000.
The education department’s finance section found that Baldragon staff had failed to follow some procedures.
Dundee City Council has since stepped up security at schools and introduced regular checks by accountants.
However, Councillor Richard McCready wants pupils and staff to use “Smartcards” which can be topped up with cash away from schools.
He said: “I am concerned that money being handled in schools can lead to problems such as the misappropriation of cash, or bullying of young people for their money, or young people being stigmatised for not having money.
“I had received a briefing from council officers which stated that the council could use the Smartcard technology available to it a lot more and do more things and innovate.
“I think we could get to a point where no child has to take cash to school, when all meals could be paid for using a Smartcard, where schools trips and other incidental expenses could be paid for using a Smartcard.
“I think that there is a lot of scope here to improve security as well as eliminating any stigmas associated with having access to events subsidised, for example.
“The technology might not be ready just yet but I think that we should have as our long-term goal creating a cashless environment in our schools.”
The Labour politician has found cross-party support for the idea from the SNP’s Jimmy Black.
Mr Black backed an amendment tabled at a council committee last week.
The SNP politician said: “I think we should avoid having cash in schools as far as possible. We can develop our Smartcard system to deal with most things. For those who use the internet, we can accept money online.”
However, Mr Black has warned that it could be difficult to ensure all schools are cashless.
“We need to bear in mind that there are still many families who have no bank accounts and may not be able to persuade a bank to give them one,” he added.
“For that reason we can’t stop using cash altogether.”
Mr McCready has asked for a report to be brought to the education committee “in the near future”.
pswindon@thecourier.co.uk