On the 7th of March, Argyll & Bute councillors rubber stamped proposals from officers to build a new 2-18 campus in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. They were given the opportunity to build a high school in a central location that all children on the island could access – instead, they decided to keep the status quo and send children as young as eleven from the Southwest of the island to board on the mainland in Oban. 

This decision will continue the depopulation of the Southwest of Mull as working age families move away or choose not to live there in order to spare their children boarding school. 

After this divisive and unfair decision, children and families are left asking why their rights to a family life, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), are worth less than their peers in the centre and North of the island. 

This short-sighted decision has been justified through a financial lens, when all options to make sure everyone can access education on their own island have not been explored. Let’s be clear all children should have access to a local primary and a high school on the island so that school access is fair for everyone.

Please sign this petition to ask Argyll & Bute Council to re-examine this decision and work in partnership with the community and Scottish Government to ensure all children can stay at home and access a high school education. It’s no more than they deserve.