John Swinney has agreed to meet Dargavel Primary parents after it was revealed the school will be oversubscribed within months.
The Deputy First Minister was pressed on the issue in the Scottish Parliament when MSP Neil Bibby asked the government to help find a solution to a blunder which saw the school built with half the capacity needed.
Parents of children attending the Bishopton school – which opened in January of this year – were enraged to discover Renfrewshire Council had botched its calculations for the projected school roll.
It built the school with a capacity of 548 when projections now show 1,100 places will be needed within a few years.
The local authority has since agreed a £2million emergency solution – pledging to install six modular classrooms on the Arrochar Drive site before the next school year.
However, parents told the Paisley Daily Express on Tuesday they had “lost all confidence” in the local authority.
Mr Bibby, Labour MSP for West Scotland, asked Mr Swinney to meet with parents to find a long-term solution to the blunder, which will take years and millions of pounds to fix.
Mr Swinney, who was education secretary when the proposals for a new school at Dargavel were made, said the mistake should be seen against a wider programme of investment in the school estate.
“I’ll happily meet with Mr Bibby and his constituents to consider the issues that he raised with me,” he said.
“I would encourage him to recognise that issues of this type can emerge in the planning of individual projects, but that against the backdrop of sustained investment by this government, the quality of the school estate is improving around the country.”
Describing the mistake as a “catastrophic blunder”, Mr Bibby said he was determined to ensure the cost of fixing the problem did not come at the detriment to other school children.
He said: “This mistake will cost millions of pounds from Renfrewshire’s already squeezed education budget. A colossal waste.
“Children promised a new school now face learning in portacabins. Parents are appalled and have lost confidence in Renfrewshire Council.
“I am pleased that the deputy First Minister has agreed to meet with me and parents to discuss what solutions can be provided for local children now, to make sure there is accountability for what has gone wrong here and to ensure that no other child in Renfrewshire loses out from any resulting shortfall in school budgets.”
But he added: “I hope by the time Mr Swinney meets with parents he has better answers and understands the scale of this failure and the impact it will have.
“For parents to be effectively told mistakes happen and people need to focus on the bigger picture is wholly inadequate.”
Renfrewshire Council confirmed earlier this week that an independent inquiry will be conducted into the mistakes made at Dargarvel.
Meanwhile, the primary school parent council said there was “outrage, anger and disappointment” directed at the local authority over its failings with the school.
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