Freedom of information act – My arse
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Having requested data relating to demographics and also exclusions over the last 20 years (under the freedom of information act) I received the response below from East Renfrewshire Council Education Department. So as requested in the email I telephoned Mary who really didn’t like my attitude at all. Mary suspects she will be unable to fulfil my request and didn’t take kindly to my insinuations she was involved in a cover up (is that a paper shredder I can hear in the background Mary?). She suspects she can can only get me 2 years worth of data (I asked for 20 years worth), she also reckons that the 2 years worth she ‘might’ be able to get me is in St Ninians High School itself which is locked up for summer holiday’s. On top of all that because of the ‘nature’ of the request she reckons I will have to pay for the information. I asked what she meant by ‘nature’ but she really doesn’t like being asked questions. I explained I would await her predictably uncooperative response prior to pursuing other avenues (higher authorities/appeals/panels etc). I suspect East renfrewshire (like me) are fully aware that the stats they are unwilling to release will illustrate their attempts (succesfull to date) to exclude children from socially excluded areas in order to focus on those from affluent areas and the associated benefits for their impressive league tables. Because we all know scheme kids are thick right.
