HEADTEACHERS have become the most powerful figures in Scottish education after the biggest structural shake-up in generations weakened the influence of councils.
In the most wide-reaching overhaul of school education in 50 years, Education Secretary John Swinney has given heads a statutory responsibility to improve standards for the first time.
Headteachers will also be handed powers to hire staff and shape the curriculum, as well directly controlling a bigger portion of budgets.
Mr Swinney insisted councils would still have a “vital” role to play in education, but he has also created new regional bodies to supplant local authorities in their traditional role of supporting schools and driving improvement.
These will be staffed by professional experts rather than councillors. and led by a regional director, who will report to the chief inspector of education.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament Mr Swinney said: “We will reform the system so that the key decisions in a child’s education are taken by schools.
“Schools will have the freedom to make their own decisions to improve learning and teaching.
“Everyone else within the education system will have a collective and shared responsibility to support schools.”
But the announcement provoked an immediate backlash from council umbrella body Cosla, which said the role of local authorities in running schools was effectively over – apart from the power to appoint headteachers.
It said: “There can be no getting away from the fact that the Scottish Government is trying to give the impression councils still have a role to play in the delivery of education when the reality is that they do not.
“The simple truth is that there will be no meaningful local democratic accountability for education in Scotland.”
The reforms were broadly welcomed by Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith.
As part of his review of school governance Mr Swinney had received proposals from groups who wanted to take schools completely out of council control but these were rejected.
Ms Smith said: “We do not believe these reforms go far enough, particularly when it comes to extending choice and allowing schools to opt out of local authority rule if that’s what parents and teachers want.”
Iain Gray, education spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party, said Mr Swinney had ignored a nationwide consultation on the proposals. And he questioned whether the regional structures would add another layer of bureaucracy.
He said: “Consultation responses from teachers, from parents, from educationalists and from councils all said the same thing.
“The first reform we need is more teachers, properly paid, properly supported and properly resourced.”
Ross Greer, education spokesman for the Scottish Greens, also said the review would not resolve the key issue of the loss of teachers.
However, Mr Swinney said the Government had taken steps to increase teacher numbers and that the six or seven regional bodies would provide specialist support for schools through education professionals.
Teaching unions welcomed aspects of the reforms that had a focus on improving support for schools and improving the career path of teachers.
However, they raised concerns about the creation of “superheads” with the power to dictate the future without consulting teachers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel