Highland Council gets £1m to help close poverty-related attainment gap
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HIGHLAND Council is to get just over £1 million to support pupils from deprived backgrounds and help close the poverty-related attainment gap.
The money – part of a £50 million package announced by the Scottish Government – has been welcomed by Caithness, Sutherland and Ross MSP Gail Ross, who acknowledged there is still a lot to do to reduce poverty and inequality in Scotland.
The SNP MSP said pupils living in the north’s most deprived communities will benefit from the funding of £1,193,340.
She stressed the £50 million package is in addition to the £250m two-year Pupil Equity Funding package and the £9m investment to provide 25,000 laptops to assist pupils learning at home.
Mrs Ross said that, to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, schools and local authorities will have flexibility to redirect some of the funding from existing plans to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged families, with a continued focus on equity in education.
She said: "In government, the SNP has put closing the poverty-related attainment gap front and centre of its plans to improve education.
"This latest funding boost for Highland Council demonstrates this government’s ambition to transform our schools and ensure that every young person gets the chance to succeed in life, regardless of their background.
"The education secretary John Swinney has also handed councils the flexibility to use this funding to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic so no child gets left behind.
"There’s still a lot to do in reducing poverty and inequality in Scotland – but universal benefits like free school meals for our youngest pupils, free prescriptions and free higher education are helping keep more money in the pockets of hard-working families here in the Highlands."
The Attainment Scotland Fund was established in 2015 and has a budget of £750 million over the course of this parliamentary term. The fund is a targeted initiative focused on supporting pupils in the local authorities of Scotland with the highest concentrations of deprivation.
The nine Challenge Authorities are Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
The Schools Programme, which includes Highland Council, supports schools outwith these Challenge Authorities. They have been identified on the basis of supporting a significant proportion of pupils and families from communities that are facing some of the greatest challenges across Scotland.
