The consolidation of middle and senior schools has not been ruled out by Government as a means of reducing expenses.

Education Minister Wayne Scott told a well-attended audience at CedarBridge Academy that while Government’s initial focus is on pre-schools and primary schools, more consolidations could be considered elsewhere in the education system.

The meeting with education stakeholders including parents, students, teachers and principals began with a brief introduction by Mr Scott followed by a presentation by education permanent secretary Valarie Robinson-James and acting education commissioner Dr Freddie Evans.

They reminded the audience of the cuts needed to be made in education, that the Ministry has been allocated $111 million for 2015–16, that they must make a reduction of $5.9 million with $1 million to be considered through school consolidation. They also provided figures showing birth rate declines, lower student enrollment in pre-schools and primary schools, and costs per student, factors that have contributed to the decision to consider school closures.

The presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session.

One question asked why Government had left so little time to implement the plan, with one audience member asking whether it could be put off until next year. Mr Scott said: “If we recognise that it is in our best interests to do something now, then why wait? First of all no decisions have been made.

“Once we decide that something needs to be done then we can look to put timelines and plans forward to do that but without a definitive decision it’s a bit difficult to answer that.”

Robinson-James added: “We are in a difficult situation right now. We talked about the economic comparatives and where we are and we shared the fact that we have been asked to consider school consolidation and as a result we find ourselves in this situation — 2016–17 would definitely be better, but what we are trying to do now is to get as much input as possible so we can end up with the best solution given the situation we are in.”

One member of the audience said that an email had been circulating with details of where the consolidations would be made.

Ms Robinson-James admitted that talks had been had in relation to the merging of St John’s School with Victor Scott School but that no decisions had been made.

A parent of a Devonshire pre-school child asked whether the Government had considered trying to better promote pre-schools in order to help boost attendance numbers? Dr Evans said: “We must be aggressive in trying to ensure that people know the successes in the public school and that effort could attract more.”

Mr Scott added: “Increasing attendance of pre-school and primary schools — that is not a stated objective per se.

However, if we ensure that our public school system is providing the best possible environment and education for our children then that could very well be one of the outcomes and that would not necessarily be a bad thing.”

Ms Robinson-James seemed to contradict Mr Scott saying promotion was a priority. She said: “This year we will be emphasising early childhood education and that is going to be one of our priorities so with that in mind we will be looking at seeking input from stakeholders so we can put together a national early childhood policy so we can get a stronger handle of our pre-schools and also to strengthen the curriculum that is being offered.”

The parent of an East End Primary School child asked why a meeting had been called specifically about school closures before any other cost-saving measure had been discussed?

Ms Robinson-James said: “Certainly if there is anything else we can think of – that is why we are saying does it warrant closure?”