The closure of two Christian personal faculties in Scotland has been described as “unhappy” and “heartbreaking”.
Kilgraston in Perthshire, Scotland's solely Catholic boarding faculty, mentioned it was closing with fast impact, citing “the potential affect of VAT on tuition charges”. A “short-term and long-term funding deficit” and the collapse of deliberate gross sales additionally contributed to the choice.
In Greenock, Cedars Christian Faculty is to shut on the finish of September after 25 years within the west Scottish city. In a letter to folks, she additionally cited issues about Labour's VAT plans.
Chair of the varsity board, Jennifer Offord, introduced: “It’s with deep unhappiness that we announce that Cedars might be closing on Friday twenty seventh September after 25 years of offering a caring and Christian training to youngsters in Inverclyde and the encompassing areas.
“Our ideas and prayers exit first to our pupils, dad and mom, workers and volunteers, but additionally to our pals and supporters who’ve given faithfully and selflessly to the operating of the varsity over a few years.”
Each faculties are closing regardless of valiant efforts to avoid wasting them. They’re actively attempting to position current pupils in different native faculties.
A spokesperson for Cedars mentioned The Telegraph newspaper that the timing of the VAT enhance was “actually unhelpful”.
Niel Deepnarain, head of Unite for Training, a Scottish Christian training charity, mentioned he was “very unhappy” on the state of the training system and the affect of the VAT adjustments on Christian faculties.
“Cedars Faculty has offered a wonderful training for a few years with a persistently excessive degree of training and native youngsters will now be worse off in consequence,” he mentioned.
“Kids throughout Scotland are dealing with elevated indoctrination within the classroom, so the necessity for Christian training has by no means been higher.
“We at Unite for Training need each little one to have entry to a Christ-centred training and the closure of Cedars implies that youngsters in Inverclyde have misplaced their solely Christian faculty.
“It’s clear that the brand new Labor authorities's resolution to introduce VAT on faculty charges from January has been an excessive amount of of a burden for households already dealing with excessive dwelling prices.”
Mr Deepnarain mentioned he had been involved with the varsity to discover methods during which a Christ-centred training may proceed to be provided to youngsters within the Inverclyde space and the way different impartial Christian faculties might be supported to forestall their closure.
He calls on the Church “to get up to the truth of the challenges we face in society and rise collectively to step up and lead once more from the entrance in funding Christian training to make sure that cash shouldn’t be a barrier to youngsters getting an excellent training”.
“We are going to proceed to work with current faculties, dwelling educators and organizations to develop and enhance the mandatory provision of Christian training in Scotland,” he mentioned.
“The necessity is nice and the price of doing nothing is simply too nice. We should arise and act now for the sake of kids.”
