Falkirk Council has spent over £500,000 on vandalism repairs in schools over the last five years, a freedom of information request (FOI) has revealed.
The Scottish Conservatives' query shows that between 2018-2023, Falkirk Council has spent £573,000 on vandalism repairs in Falkirk’s primary and secondary schools.
Broken windows, fire damage and graffiti are among the issues which have had to be dealt with.
The figures for 22/23 to date show that the council has already spent £148,000 on cleaning up vandalism. That's higher than last year's total of £142,000 and much higher than the 18/19 figure of £108,000.
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The FOI shows that the two years during the pandemic saw a dip in vandalism as learning was interrupted and pupils worked from home for months.
Despite that, the clean up operations still cost £86,000 in 2019/20 and £89,000 in 20/21.
The Conservatives requested figures for incidents in primary, secondary and special schools.
The figures show that incidents in Falkirk's primary schools have remained relatively steady, while in secondary schools the amount spent this year and last is almost double the 2018/19 total.
This year, to the start of March, has seen £38,000 of damage in primary schools, £107,000 in secondaries and £3000 in special schools.
In 2018/19 the cost to repair damage to primary schools totalled £39,000, to secondaries, £68,000 and special schools £1000.
Commenting on the figures, Cllr James Bundy, Conservative councillor for Falkirk North said: “We all want to see more resources go into frontline education and with budgets tightening, it is vitally important that the money we do have goes into areas which will open opportunities for our young people.
“We must cultivate a school environment where nobody has any motivation to cause damage to the school building through vandalism, as this is the only sustainable way to reduce spending on vandalism repairs.
“Scotland has a proud history of being at the forefront of global education and as a Scottish Conservative, I want to conserve this reputation.
"To do this, we must make sure Falkirk’s education department is spending taxpayers’ money to create opportunities for Falkirk’s young people.”
The FOI, which was submitted across Scotland, revealed that nationally the money spent repairing vandalism in schools has reached almost £5 million in the last five years.
In 2022/23 alone £690,280 has been spent repairing malicious damage in secondary, primary and special schools.
However, ten of Scotland's 32 local authorities did not reply to the FOI so the figure is expected to be substantially higher.
A spokeswoman for Falkirk Council said vandalism covered matters associated with windows being broken, break ins, fire-raising, graffiti, damage within school grounds and to furniture and equipment
"We have over the last few years noted an increase in vandalism incidents within secondary school toilets which has increased costs," she said. "Whilst the figures quoted do relate to spend within schools, some of these costs will relate to schools being extensively used to support community and leisure activities and some of the expenditure may relate to general repair work being incorrectly coded.
"As a Service we are aware that vandalism does re-direct valuable financial resources and continue to liaise with schools and our other stakeholders to ensure they are aware of this and take all reasonable steps to limit this."
