Opposition parties have accused the Scottish Government of "stalling" and kicking education reform "into the long grass".
Nicola Sturgeon was grilled on a delay to the Government's Education Bill during First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.
The proposed legislation had been promised early this year but this week Education Secretary John Swinney said it would be published "sometime during 2017".
Mr Swinney said he needs time to "chew over" some 1,100 responses to the Government's review of school governance which will feed into the Bill.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said education reform is on a "slow train", while Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said it had been "kicked into the long grass".
Ms Davidson said: "A year-and-a-half ago, the First Minister staked her reputation on reforming Scotland's schools and what have we seen since then?
"We've seen literacy standards slipping, we've seen numeracy standards sliding, we've seen Curriculum for Excellence failing, and now we've seen her Education Secretary stalling.
"She keeps putting their referendum on the front foot but she's putting everyone else's child's education on the back burner.
"Hasn't her Government got their priorities all wrong on this?"
Ms Sturgeon said: "Every time Ruth Davidson stands up in this chamber all she manages to do is shoot herself in the foot. I want to talk about education and she just continually tries to shoe-horn in the mentions of independence and a referendum.
"We have had the consultation on governance reform. We have received over 1,000 responses to that consultation and it's right and proper that the Education Secretary considers all of those responses and then comes forward to Parliament with our proposals on the way forward."
The First Minister said the governance review was just one element of education reform, citing the Government's attainment challenge, pupil equity funding and national improvement framework.
She said: "When you have a consultation with the potential for some far-reaching reforms in education, I think it is absolutely right that we take time to consider the responses and to consider the way forward. As we are doing that the other strands of our reform programme are well under way."
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