PLANS to build the first new mainstream secondary school in Huddersfield for 30 years have been scrapped.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has halted rebuilding projects at 700 schools across the country which had been approved under the previous Government’s £55billion Building Schools For the Future programme.
Kirklees Council’s plans to build a new school to replace Fartown High School is one of the casualties.
Ken Smith, Kirklees Cabinet member for children and families, described the news as devastating and a blow not just to children but to the local economy.
Michael Gove’s view is that the BSF programme had been beset by massive overspends, botched construction and needless bureaucracy.
Value for money is certainly key to the country’s future in the current climate but so is the environment in which our children learn.
The country’s future will, after all, be built on the success of the next generation’s ability to learn in a positive and nurturing environment. It is difficult for even the most gifted of teachers to deliver that in rundown and inappropriate buildings.
It is to be hoped that halting the BSF project, which many admit had major flaws, is just the beginning of a long, hard look at our schools with appropriate investment in the years to come to enable our education system to get back where it should be, at the heart of the country’s future.
