Shropshire Review

A STAY OF EXECUTION?

Looking back at the twists and turns of the proposed closure of 22 Shropshire village schools, I’m reminded irresistibly of Joseph Heller’s satirical novel Catch-22
The book was about a demoralised WWII American Air Force unit whose pilots had to complete an ever-expanding number of dangerous missions before going home. The only escape was to be invalided out on the grounds of insanity, and no-one ever achieved this because the medical officer invariably invoked Catch-22.

Catch-22 reasoned that if the pilot was sane enough to realise that going home was preferable to being in danger, he couldn’t possibly be mad. Applicants were smartly returned to duties without further discussion.
In the case of the Shropshire schools, the county council have been handed a Catch-22 by a government which on one hand thundered that village schools must be preserved at literally all costs, and on the other imposed a clear obligation on the council to make savings by closing them!

Faced with this lunatic logic, the council chose the Devil over the deep blue sea, damned if it did and damned if it didn’t. However, the depth of feeling that the proposals aroused must have stunned anyone used to Shropshire’s reputation for apathy. In a heartening display of community in action, parents, children, local MPs and supporters turned out by the hundred to lobby Shire Hall and make their feelings known. The beleaguered council had an impossible task, eventually settling on a compromise to let the majority of schools maintain the status quo - at least for the time being. Is this just a stay of execution, I wonder?

Our village schools are a national institution, providing a nurturing environment that’s conductive not only to academic learning but to personal and spiritual growth. The begrudgers may argue about costs; that the children enjoy a more hands-on, selective and expensive education than at the bigger schools, and that a changing demographic indicates that falling rolls will fall still further as the blip in the birth rate works through.

The case for keeping the little schools rises above such considerations. Village life is not what it was: many rural settlements have lost their shop, their post office, their pub; their church; their bus service, even their sense of community. Village schools help keep services going, the children bring life and vitality, and create a spirit of place that transcends the mere getting of wisdom. Worth paying for. Well worth fighting for.

Peter Wooldridge
Editor