Investing in children

No-one likes anomalies; not politicians whose policies inadvertently produce them, nor members of the public who are angered when an irregularity puts them at a disadvantage for no sustainable reason. Sometimes it takes a change of administration to see an inherited anomaly for what it is: a deviation to be corrected. As The Herald reveals this morning, the Scottish Executive will today level a playing field that has operated against some parents in the provision of nursery schooling. The SNP minority administration is to invest £15m in ensuring that parents who want it have access to 38 weeks a year of free nursery education, of 12.5 hours a week, for their three and four-year-olds.