Potential victim of cutbacks

Chess scheme could be next victim of cutbacks

Celebrated initiative to be reviewed, sparking fears programme will be ditched
By Calum Ross
Published: 10/01/2009

A celebrated scheme which turned youngsters in deprived areas of Aberdeen into national chess champions could become the latest victim of council cutbacks, it has emerged.

Aberdeen City Council has confirmed its chess development project, which has taught the board game to hundreds of youngsters in city schools and evening clubs, is to be “reviewed” before April.

The admission last night sparked fears the highly-successful programme is to go the same way as the groundbreaking French immersion scheme at Walker Road Primary School, in Torry, which wound up before Christmas due to a lack of funding.

Smithfield Primary School’s chess team last year became the latest from the city to be crowned Scottish champions, but there are concerns future generations may be denied the opportunity to repeat the feat.

A spokeswoman for the council said it was looking at ways to retain the project in some capacity.

Iain Cuthbert, 40, of Macaulay Grange, Aberdeen, who taught the game to pupils at Muirfield, Holy Family, Kittybrewster and Tullos primaries for six years before leaving the post in November, doubted whether it would continue.

He said: “It’s winding down. It’s not finished yet but it’s on the way out.”

The success of the chess programme was hailed in a report to councillors in November 2005, in which the project was said to have acted as a “new catalyst for educational development in the poorest areas of the city” and that it had become a “unique form of pupil support for children exhibiting difficult behaviour”.

Councillor Neil Cooney, former city teacher and opposition Labour group education spokesman, said he would not be surprised if the project was lost.

“It’s these little things that have no one around to defend them and they slip through while all the attention goes on swimming pools and sports facilities,” he said.

A local authority spokes-woman said: “The provision of the chess programme is currently being reviewed.

“The funding is secure until the end of March and we are actively looking at other ways of supporting the project, even in a limited capacity, and carrying it on into the future.”

Source: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk