A PROBE into surplus school places should be looked upon as a challenge, according to a union leader.

Carmarthenshire Council is currently carrying out an investigation into an estimated 1,600 empty desks in the primary and secondary sector. The move comes after the schools inspection service in Wales, Estyn, told the county it needed to tackle the problem following a visit last year.

The report said: "The authority has made good progress in taking action to address the impact of falling pupil numbers in primary schools. However, there remains a great deal of work to do.

"Nearly half of the authority's primary schools (57 of 116) and a majority of its small schools (34 out of 54) have more than a quarter of their places unfilled. Both of these figures are the highest in Wales."

Of the county's secondary schools, the report said: "Projected figures for 2014 show that pupil numbers are expected to decrease by 1,358 in relation to January 2009, potentially increasing the number of unfilled places within the secondary sector to 16.1 per cent."

Geraint Davies, secretary of NASUWT Cymru teaching union, said the situation should not lead to job losses, but an improvement in standards of education in the county.

He told the Post: "This sort of report from Estyn should not trigger a massive debate about possible school closures and mergers, but should lead instead to a debate on improving standards.

"Let's look upon it as a challenge rather than a threat. The identification of spare spaces within a LEA should not set alarm bells ringing, because in many schools there are good reasons why the situation is as it is. Rather than mothball schools, we would like to see the extra space and resources used to develop our pupils further."

Gareth Morgan, of the county's department for education, told the council's education and children's service scrutiny committee: "An exercise will commence in the summer of 2010 to review the designation of spaces in some schools, to assess whether realistic scope exists to adjust the capacity of the schools in question by redefining the use of spaces in line with the principles of Welsh Assembly guidance."

Mr Morgan also said they would: "Reassess the capacity of schools with significant numbers of surplus places to assess whether any reduction can be secured through the redesignation of spaces, or by the removal of non-essential temporary accommodation."

In neighbouring Swansea, a reorganisation of its schools, partly due to falling numbers, could see at least 100 teachers lose their jobs.

geraint.thomas@swwmedia.co.uk