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Council refuses to consult |
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Saturday, 17 December 2005 |
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It has been suggested recently that there might be a demand from Muslim
parents for a Council run Muslim primary school in Glasgow.
Therefore, the SNP asked on Thursday 15th at the full meeting of
Council whether the Education Department would consult with parents to
find out what they wanted. However, Councillor Gordon
Matheson on behalf of the Labour administration refused to hold such a
consultation. He said they would consider consulting
parents only if a "well developed proposal" came forward.
The SNP's Cllr John Mason who had asked the question said later,
"Labour are always saying how keen they are to consult parents on all
sorts of issues so why are they not willing to do so now?
No other group of parents are asked to bring forward a "well developed
proposal". The normal method is for the Council to develop
a proposal which they then put to parents for comment. This
is what has happened with the merging of primary schools, school
closures, the new school for deaf and blind children, etc.
Why should Muslim parents be treated differently and be expected to
develop a proposal themselves? I think this is a very
shabby way to treat this large ethnic minority group in our City."
[NB Gordon Matheson promised opposition councillors a written copy of his full response but this is still awaited.]
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