Scots pupils 'in rundown schools'

Ministers said more than �2bn had been committed to schools

Almost a third of pupils in Scotland are being taught in crumbling or rundown schools, new figures show.

The Scottish Government-published statistics said 26% of schools were rated as being in a "poor" condition, while 5% were rated as "bad".

Holyrood ministers said more than �2bn had been committed to invest in Scotland's schools.

But Labour claimed the government was running out of time to modernise Scotland's school buildings.

Holyrood ministers said funding for seven major local authority projects had been "signed off", while a further four were "in the pipeline".

The SNP is a long way off matching Labour's schools programme brick for brick Rhona Brankin Labour education spokeswoman

A total of 15% of schools were given a "good" rating and 53 were said to be "satisfactory".

But 5% of Scotland's 2,167 primary schools and 3% of the 377 secondary schools were classified as being in "bad" condition, while 25% of the primaries and 28% of the secondaries were "poor".

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop highlighted figures showing 115 school building projects were completed in the last financial year - although Labour pointed out these were set up under the previous Scottish Government.

She said the SNP was matching its predecessor's school building programme "brick for brick".

'Time pressure'

"Currently there is more than �2bn of committed investment in Scotland's schools," she said.

"In total, we expect 250 schools to be built, funded or under construction through various funding mechanisms during the life of this parliament."

But Labour education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin cast doubt on the figures.

"Eighteen months in power and the SNP still haven't commissioned one new school building and they haven't put in place a new system of funding," she claimed.

"The truth is the SNP is a long way off matching Labour's schools programme brick for brick. Labour refurbished over 300 schools when we were in power and we would have built 100 more by 2009."

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