THE words "school closure" automatically send a shiver down the spines of parents and children. To them, the words symbolise upheaval, disruption, upset and the end of an era.
They instantly evoke the fighting spirit in parents and communities as they pledge to battle to ensure their local school does not become a victim of the council's rationalisation process.
When education chiefs announced their controversial plans
to close 13 primaries, three secondaries and six nurseries back in 2007, parents and children immediately launched into campaign mode, planning protests and petitions.
Their mass opposition to the proposals was all too much for the newly-elected Lib Dem/SNP council to deal with and they withdrew the plans within days.
But the problem of falling pupil numbers and thousands of empty places in the city's primary schools never went away, leaving education bosses with the unenviable task of having to draw up a new rationalisation plan. This was launched last year when the council announced its plans to close Westburn, Bonnington and Lismore. Despite the best efforts of parents and children to keep the schools open, the death knell sounded for them all.
Round two came this week when proposals to close four primaries – Royston, Fort, Burdiehouse and Drumbrae – were unveiled.
It's not hard to see the rationale behind the council's proposals. Each of these schools has between just a 33 per cent and 41 per cent occupancy rate, between them racking up hundreds of excess places.
And the cost per pupil in each of these schools is hundreds – and in some cases thousands – of pounds more per year than the city average of £3,699.
Many of Edinburgh's schools are in a poor condition, with more than £8 million needed to refurbish toilets alone.
Many others complain of poor dining facilities, lack of playground space, broken boilers and leaking roofs.
One of the council's arguments for rationalisation – other than its dire financial situation – is that the rest of the school estate is suffering by keeping schools open which are drastically below capacity.
The rationale is that the authority is throwing money at these schools just to keep them up and running – at the expense of carrying out essential repairs and upgrades to other schools.
Education bosses say that they can save more than £1m per year by closing four primaries and bring in a further £2.4m through land sales.
The council says money made through the sale of the sites would be put back into the school estate, which would include the building of new nursery schools at Gracemount and Clermiston primaries and the creation of more places at Granton Primary School Nursery.
City education leader Marilyne MacLaren explained: "It's like running a small business or your own household and seeing how you can make efficiencies.
"We are pouring money into schools which are not full and spending money on teachers and buildings and we could do it much more efficiently by putting the children into other nearby schools, provided that we are also giving them an educationally advantageous environment – we would not embark on any of these proposals if it was shown to me that children were going to be disadvantaged. It costs us a lot more money to educate children in smaller schools and that extra money could be used to buy pencils, paper and textbooks."
The population of primary-aged children in Edinburgh is set to rise by nearly 20 per cent over the next ten years, but the council says it has taken this into account when coming up with its proposals and its research shows that the population increase will not be in the areas where they are proposing to close schools.
Councillor MacLaren said the education department decided mothballing Fort Primary would be the best option for Leith, just in case the Western Harbour development brings with it a baby boom.
She said: "It's better to do this than to just keep going as we are while waiting to see the impact of the new developments because it is just swallowing up money that other schools are crying out for.
"We have been careful so that we do not have to provide extra spaces in the future in areas where we are closing schools.
"Where we get an increase in population it won't be in places where we have closed schools."
Over the past ten years, Edinburgh has seen 30 new or refurbished school buildings, which will increase to 36 by 2011.
In fact Juniper Green Primary – the second of two new primary schools under the £180m PPP2 programme, which also includes six new secondaries – will be officially opened today.
If parents can see real improvements like this being made to the school estate, it may make it easier for them to understand the reasons why the council has to close schools.
Eleanor Coner, information officer for the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, says that harsh decisions like school closures have to be taken for the benefit of the wider school community.
She said: "As a parent I can understand how emotional and upsetting it is, but Edinburgh's school roll is going down, schools are not being used to their full capacity and it comes down to money and practical decisions.
"If you say to any parent that a school is closing down, they will think 'that's awful'.
"But if you tell them they're not getting a new gym at their own school unless this happens then they will see it in a different way.
"The council can't do everything and hard decisions have to be made."
These hard decisions will now form part of a consultation process which starts in August, where parents will be given the chance to have their say on the proposals.
For parents and children at Fort, Royston, Burdiehouse and Drumbrae, the council's justifications will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears as they do everything they can to save the schools they love and have grown up with.
But it's not just these parents that have a fight on their hands as the rationalisation process is not over yet. With 22 schools and nurseries on the original hit-list back in 2007 and just seven announced to date, no-one would expect it to end here.
