VAT on school fees is counter-productive - Miles Briggs

Miles Briggs MSP

It is perhaps entirely unsurprising that the SNP have supported Labour on this issue. However, in time SNP Ministers will need to understand the real impact it will have on the education system, especially here in the Lothians.

One of the problems with this is that it punishes the parents that are already making significant sacrifices in order to send their children to independent schools, and this will simply mean that hardworking parents – not the super-rich – will be crushed by it.

While this will, of course, impact independent school pupils and the parents of children already there, it will also adversely impact the state sector.

More pupils mean larger class sizes, more pupils mean more pressure of already over stretched school budgets and more pupils means more pressure of additional support for learning budgets.

Nowhere will this policy be felt more intensely than here in Edinburgh, a city with a disproportionately high number of pupils attending independent schools (roughly 25 per cent.)

There is already fierce competition in Edinburgh to get into high performing schools and as we see more children moving into the state sector, this will only exacerbate the issue.

Edinburgh already has the second highest pupil to teacher ratio in Scotland, sitting at 14.7 only just behind East Lothian.

As is widely accepted, a lower pupil to teacher ratio is generally considered more desirable and advantageous to a child’s learning. Edinburgh has historically had a higher ratio than the rest of Scotland and as is now feared Labour’s policy will only increase the number of pupils per teacher in the Capital.

This policy represents another backwards step by Labour and the SNP. It is not about getting the ‘wealthy’ to pay more. Our fantastic state schools are already struggling and the task to absorb the numbers of pupils that come into it from the independent sector will only make delivering smaller class sizes and additional support for learning more difficult.

Earlier this week I asked Shona Robison the Finance Secretary what the Scottish Government planned to do about the financial pressures facing the Capital, noting that Edinburgh City Council currently receives the lowest funding per head of population in Scotland.

With data already emerging about an influx of pupils to the state sector, it is vital that together with COSLA, the Scottish Government acts so that all young people in Edinburgh are given the best start to life, regardless of what school they attend.

Conservative MSP for Lothian​