School trip money secured

Dec 4 2008 by Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

SCHOOL pupils from across Renfrewshire will be able to go on educational trips to Auschwitz after the government stepped in with additional funding.

The Holocaust Educational Trust has been taking pupils from across the UK on one-day trips to visit the camp in Poland since 1988.

Last month, Paisley Daily Express reporter Alison Rennie accompanied high school pupils on a visit to the largest Nazi concentration camp, where an estimated one and a half million men, women and children were killed.

However, from next year, funding will come from the UK government’s education budget – which only covers England and Wales – meaning Scots kids would have lost out.

But the SNP has vowed to invest £214,000 a year to pay for two chartered flights and ensure every secondary school in Scotland will have the chance to send two senior pupils to experience the concentration camp for themselves.

Education secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “The Scottish Government recognises that Holocaust education offers an important and insightful dimension to the curriculum and that it is important pupils have the chance to learn about what happened in Auschwitz so that the Holocaust is never forgotten.

“We have discussed with COSLA the merits of taking a national approach, rather than the 32 local authorities conducting their own negotiations, such as the need for chartered air travel.

“We have agreed that a national approach offers the best way forward.”