A group of parents representing rural schools, including closure-threatened Arbirlot, have secured a meeting with Education Minister Peter Peacock next week.

They are seeking a change in national closure guidelines in order to protect the rural school estate from the escalation in attempted closures by local authorities.

Since revised guidelines were introduced 13 months ago, more than 50 rural schools have been threatened with closure.

This compares to a closure rate averaging around six per annum for the previous seven years.

In response a group of parents from Arbirlot petitioned the Scottish Parliament calling for the introduction of a presumption against closure of rural schools similar to that introduced to England by Labour in 1998.

In the process of gathering support for this petition a new national group emerged—the Rural Schools Network— which has vowed to both push for a change in legislation and provide support for rural schools threatened with closure.

One of the founder members, Justin Willey from Arbirlot, said, “It is quite an achievement to have secured this meeting with the minister and we are grateful for the opportunity to put our case directly to the man in charge.

“We intend to leave him with a dossier on our experiences of the flawed nature of the formal and informal consultation procedures employed by some local authorities.

“We also intend to impress upon the minister that we foresee a drastic impact on Scotland’s countryside if the current trend is allowed to continue.”

Fellow member Sandy Longmuir, also from Arbirlot, added, “I have been absolutely astounded by the quality of team we have assembled in such a brief amount of time.

“We have a professor of economics, an educational adviser to the Swedish government, numerous PhDs in various subjects, lawyers, auditors, information technology specialists, public relations consultants, teachers, and politicians of every hue.

“The fact that these are all willing to work together not only for their own schools but for others in Scotland shows how important a school in our midst is to most rural dwellers.”

On Wednesday Mr Peacock is to appear before the education committee of the Scottish Parliament to answer questions on rural school closures among other topics.

Between this appearance and his private meeting with seven representatives of the Rural Schools Network there is to be a lobby of MSPs by parents and community members of Channelkirk, the latest school under threat.

This Borders village has the traditional church, shop, pub, school with 54 pupils and a nursery school.

Mr Longmuir said, “This is exactly the type of community that Scotland should be nurturing and not placing in jeopardy.”

Despite being in informal consultation on closure for 11 months now, there appears to be no sign of any decision on the fate of Arbirlot School.