Deputy Editor Alan Young and Education Correspondent Calum Ross talk through the stories of the day
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy
00:12Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Education Correspondent Callum Ross to
00:17take a look through the main headlines. Hi Callum.
00:21Hi Alan.
00:23Let's have a look at the front page first. And you can see today we splash on Callum's
00:30story and it's around the Labour plans to impose VAT on private school fees. This it
00:38has been warned is going to have the biggest impact in Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh
00:44where a quarter of pupils are privately educated. We picture on the front there Andy Murray
00:49still to say whether he's going to compete in the singles at this year's Wimbledon.
00:54We're expecting an announcement later on today and obviously we cover all the Euro action
01:02as well. So Callum, talk us through today's story.
01:08Of course Alan. I mean obviously everyone expecting a Labour victory at Thursday's election
01:14would be a big shock if that didn't happen. One of the party's most eye-catching policies
01:21really certainly in terms of education has been the proposal to end the VAT exemption
01:28on private school fees which would be UK-wide. As can be imagined, independent schools are
01:37not very supportive of this. They say that most of them would not be able to absorb the
01:44full impact of this policy and that will mean that fees will rise and for some families,
01:51potentially thousands in Scotland, they could face difficult decisions over whether to continue
01:58sending their children to the schools they currently go to. Now today's story is really
02:03about the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, SCIS. They've written to Bridget
02:10Philipson, Labour's shadow education secretary, I guess she could be education secretary in
02:19a few days' time and they're wanting talks really. They want a meeting with the party
02:24because they want to make the UK party aware that there are Scottish-specific circumstances
02:30that might not have been fully considered by Labour. They certainly believe that the
02:35impact of the policy will hit harder in Scotland and that's for various reasons including lower
02:41incomes generally in parts of England. So they want a full consultation and I think
02:48what they really want as well is time. They don't want this implemented immediately, they
02:54want a bit of time to put the processes in place and also for families to be able to
02:58work out what they're going to do.
03:00And I guess a lot of people would look at this and think, well, you can afford to send
03:05your child to a private school, surely you can cope with the fees going up, everything
03:12else in life is on the increase. But there are particular concerns in Scotland, aren't
03:18there, that a 20% rise in fees will lead to potentially thousands of pupils going back
03:26into the local authority system?
03:29That's right. I mean, SCIS has estimated that 6,000 pupils in independent schools will
03:37be heading back into state schools, you know, big disruption on them. That's based on some
03:4320% reduction, which is a figure from down south. But I mean, you know, the Institute
03:51of Fiscal Studies says it's more likely to be 3 to 7% reduction, which would be kind
03:58of between 1 and 2,000 basically. And to put that in context, I mean, there's 3,000 Ukrainian
04:05children in Scottish schools, you know, as a result of the war over there. So I think
04:10we really need to wait and see what the impact's going to be. Indeed, you know, I contacted
04:15council, Edinburgh City Council, Glasgow City Council, Perth and Kinross Council. Now, they
04:21share the three areas with the most, highest numbers of children going to independent schools
04:27who kind of live in the areas, and none of them said they had seen any impact yet. But
04:32obviously, you know, the election's not even happened, the policy's not been detailed,
04:38and the schools won't have been able to decide exactly the extent fees are going to go up
04:42and everything else. So it is early days, but it's certainly one to watch in terms of
04:46the impact.
04:48Indeed. Thanks very much for talking us through all that, Callum. You can read the full story
04:52in today's paper and online at Scotsman.com. Please do keep an eye on the site throughout
04:56the day where we'll have all the very latest breaking news and analysis. And if you can
05:02do subscribe, then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything that we do.
05:07If you're on the bike today, as ever, do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Callum.
05:13It's bye for now.
05:17Bye.