Quote Originally Posted by islaydarkblue View Post
This scheme would never have worked.
Local residents on the Scottish islands have a complete distrust of anyone moving to live or work on their island even if they are an asset to the place.
A former member of Islay GC who was a secondary school teacher moved to Islay to be a teacher at Islay High School.
He told me that one evening he was out for a drink. The parent of one of his pupils came over to him and complained about people moving to Islay to be a teacher at Islay HS.
My friend told this local resident that if teachers did not move to work on Islay the local residents would all be sheep shaggers.
It is a well known fact on Islay that Islay High School would not exist if teachers from the Mainland did not move their to take up teaching posts.
Most of the Scottish islands do not have decent full time jobs for young people.
Even with 9 whisky distilleries on Islay working full time a lot of the jobs in these distilleries are seasonal with people working in the whisky distillery’s visitor centre from Easter until the middle of October every year.
It is the same in the tourist industry on all the Scottish islands with people being employed for seasonal work with a short increase in work over the New Year period when the Calmac ferries are packed out running one way. Busy with people coming to Islay for the New Year and then busy with people returning back to the Mainland from 2nd January onwards.
Why don't the youngsters on Islay train to be teachers? Voila, teacher crisis resolved, school stays open and an element of the refusal of locals to welcome incomers disappears.