Business and public-sector leaders who mentor disadvantaged pupils have warned that plans to cut funding to the MCR Pathways programme would be “catastrophic”.
Removing financial support for the project would have a “devastating effect” on educational outcomes, job opportunities and life chances for vulnerable young people, the mentors say. In a letter to The Times, they are calling on Glasgow city council to abandon proposals to cut the programme’s funding as part of a package of multi million pound cuts to the educational budget over the next three years. The mentors come from business, healthcare, academia, law, music and charities.
Among the 27 signatories are Scott McCroskie, chief executive of the Edrington Group; David Hillier, associate principal and executive dean of the Strathclyde Business School Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Sandy Begbie, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise and chairman of Developing Young Workforce, which gives young people commercial skills. The letter says that the council would abdicate its responsibilities as a “corporate parent” if it cut the MCR Pathways funding.
“Glasgow city council’s decision to cut its funding for school-based co-ordinators working on the groundbreaking MCR Pathways pupil mentoring programme is wrong in every way,” the letter says. ‘MCR supports the city’s most disadvantaged young people … removing this support will have a devastating impact on their education outcomes, job choices and life chances.” In a letter to Humza Yousaf, the first minister, and Jenny Gilruth, Scotland’s education secretary, Billie Mason, a teenager who has been in care, said she had “personally benefited from this invaluable programme” and that MCR Pathways had been life-changing.
“The programme not only provided me with the necessary support and guidance to navigate the complexities of education but also instilled in me a new-found sense of confidence and determination,” she wrote. “I firmly believe that MCR Pathways plays a crucial role in bridging the attainment gap in Glasgow.”
Since it launched in 2007, MCR Pathways has helped thousands of pupils who had been in care and other vulnerable pupils achieve higher rates of attendance and attainment. If the cuts go ahead, nearly 2,000 pupils, including 800 in care, will lose their mentors in August, before the start of the new academic year.
A council spokeswoman said a review of MCR mentoring coordinators was under way following the council budget last month. “Several options are being explored and no decision has been taken to stop the programme,” she said. A cross-party political oversight group has been established and we will keep staff and the relevant trade unions informed and updated of developments. ‘We understand that this will cause a degree of uncertainty but with council savings of £108 million over the next three years it is significantly more challenging to protect education expenditure.”
