IT is a perplexing source of conjecture why Hillhead High should be feeling the sharpened blade of the axe hanging over its head when it out-performs its West End neighbour, Woodside Secondary, in virtually every meaningful respect.

The red brick monument to pre-war architecture has proudly co-existed within the Glasgow University campus since the early 1930s.

In the key indicators of cost, attendance, and academic performance, Hillhead reveals itself as one of Glasgow's most successful state schools.

Yet in one crucial respect it lets itself down - a matter connected neither to cost nor to education. It is simply this: Glasgow City Council's director of education Malcolm Green and its deputy provost Alex Mosson have no direct political stake in its continued existence.

That, at least, is the most reasonable inference which can be drawn from Dr Green's letter to the secretary of the Labour group Des McNulty in which he claims that to rule out an amalgamated Woodside/Hillhead school on the existing Woodside site would be ''extremely damaging to the standing of the Labour Party and the entire Anderston area''.

When the two schools were the subject of an informal consultation process, the suggestion was that both buildings should close and a super school be built on a new site.

By the time the education committee met on February 17 and the formal consultation document was agreed, the proposal had been amended.

It recommended ''the closure of Woodside Secondary School and pupils transferring to Hillhead High Secondary School with a new build extension on an adjacent site together with the extension and refurbishment of the current Hillhead High School building''.

The decision by politicians to safeguard the future of the Hillhead site was, no doubt, influenced by the campaigning skills of a significant group of motivated, educated, and largely middle-class parents.

A poll conducted by the semantically-challenged Hands Around Hillhead group claimed that 95% of parents and 87% of pupils were against merger plans.

The survey also revealed that 88% of parents agreed the education offered by the school was satisfactory.

Yet Dr Green's letter to Mr McNulty reveals the apparent need to consider other electoral dynamics. It states: ''With regard to Woodside/Hillhead, the director favours a single option of developing on the Hillhead site.

''The only reason for this, as he freely admits, is that the Hillhead parents are threatening to go anywhere rather than Woodside, whereas we can be reasonably sure that the Woodside children will have nowhere else to go.''

The cost of educating a pupil at Hillhead High School is #2757 a year, compared with #3664 at Woodside and a national average of #2786.

The capacity of Hillhead is set at 812 and the current roll is 769 with a projection for the year 2002 set at 812, limited by the capacity of its building. Each year the school attracts 70 placing requests.

The capacity of Woodside is set at 974. Its current roll is 439 with a projected roll of 432 by the year 2002. The school tends to lose out on placing requests.

Some 92% of pupils at Hillhead pass five Standard Grade exams at level one to six, compared with a national average of 89%. Some 23% of pupils gain more than three Highers, compared with 20% in the rest of Scotland. The corresponding figures at Woodside are 70% and 13%.

On the grounds of cost, Woodside is by far the cheaper option, but it is argued this is not a criterion.

One option is to close Woodside and transfer its pupil roll to a new 1200-strong Hillhead High.

The existing building on Oakfield Avenue would be supplemented by refurbishing offices owned by Glasgow University. The cost of buying the buildings and renovating them would be #9.5m.

The other option being considered by councillors today is to extend the current Woodside site to accommodate the new pupil roll of Hillhead at a cost of #4m.

The issue of cost however should not enter the equation to any great extent. A consultation document issued to councillors states: ''It is obvious from the current pupil rolls that Hillhead High School does attract, through placing requests, a number of pupils whose local school is Woodside Secondary.

''In terms of best value, it is important that the council consults on the options of retaining either of the two current school buildings, appropriately extended.

''However judgments on best value should not be based on narrow financial considerations only.

''Education and social factors are of equal importance. The location of a school can be a key detriment in the future success of a school.''