Page 2423 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
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Faced with falling enrolments and rising unit costs authorities are sometimes tempted to apply in a fairly mechanical way what is known as the "transfer principle" i.e. transferring pupils in such a way that in the case of two half-empty schools in an area, one becomes full and the other empty.
This OECD document then goes on to warn about it:
Although the "transfer principle" aims at ensuring that no school's enrolment falls below a threshold considered educationally or economically viable, a policy based on this principle is open to serious objections.
Did you know about this? You should have known about this document.
First is the risk of depriving the community of an important element in local life and of increasing the difficulties (and costs) involved in transporting pupils. Secondly, concentrating the school network often results in large schools and in a need for extensions. Finally, if the empty school has to be "mothballed" to keep it in reserve for any future upturn in enrolments, the economic advantage of closure is partly offset by the fact that the buildings have to be maintained and heated to some degree; empty buildings are also more prone to vandalism.
I realise you are intending, instead, on the last point to use the bulldozer and - - -
Mr Humphries: So, you agree with this?
MR MOORE: I am saying that I realise what you intend to do. I do not agree with any of it at all, Mr Humphries, and I am sure you well know that.
Mr Humphries: The OECD says that we should not keep the buildings.
MR MOORE: Mr Humphries, I have tried to explain this to you and I will read it again if you really want me to, but let me go on and you will see that what it says, quite clearly, is that this is a negative option and you ought not pursue that option at all. There is a positive situation and you can use that space. If you read it, it talks about how it can be useful for the community both in terms of the financial profit in terms of the private sector, and in terms of the advantages to the school and to the community when community users are added. This is what it talks about. The OECD also talks about the decision. It says:
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