John Swinney is under pressure to set out a timetable detailing how he will respond to calls for sweeping reform of key education agencies.
It comes after opposition MSPs teamed up to back a motion demanding that schools watchdog Education Scotland be broken up, with inspection activities split from its curriculum development role.
They also want the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to be made “more accountable” and say teachers should be at the heart of governance structures.
Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has written to the Education Secretary with a call for action following Wednesday's Holyrood vote.
READ MORE: Defeat for John Swinney
"Parliament has recognised the strength of Scottish Liberal Democrat arguments and made its view clear," his letter says.
"The Scottish Government must now acknowledge and begin work to implement the will of Parliament with Education Scotland separated into independent inspection and policy functions and reforms to ensure that the SQA is grounded in the teaching profession.
"We need the organisations in charge of Scottish education to get out of the way of teachers, and in must come an education system overseen by people with current and direct teaching experience.
"In this crisis teachers have been creative, dedicated, full of good ideas. They know what their pupils need. We can’t say that of Education Scotland and the SQA."
The letter also calls for ministers to publish the OECD's latest review of Scottish education.
"As Parliament made clear, leaving this document in the hands of ministers and the same organisations it is intended to critique for months of editing is not appropriate, especially when it risks such a significant report remaining unpublished until after the forthcoming election," it continues.
"The public deserve to have all the facts when they make up their minds. I believe that you would have the support of all parties in writing to the OECD to ask for the publication of an interim report as swiftly as possible."
Major education reforms were backed following Wednesday's debate by 65 votes to 58. However, the result is not legally binding.
READ MORE: Move to break up schools watchdog
An SNP attempt to amend the motion was voted down by 64 votes to 61.
Mr Swinney, who is also Deputy First Minister, hit back strongly against criticism of the two agencies, describing it as “gratuitous and unfounded”.
“It serves neither the country nor our children and young people to attack the contribution of some of those staff in Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualification Authority for their efforts,” he went on.
Mr Swinney said a number of indicators had improved, adding: “Young people are doing better today than they did when this Government took office. That’s the record I’m going to take to the streets of this country on May 6.”
READ MORE: John Swinney stresses 'every possibility' of blended learning
Commenting on the letter, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Teachers, support staff and other professionals working in education – in schools, colleges, councils and our national agencies - have worked with dedication and commitment in supporting Scotland’s children and young people very well throughout the pandemic.
"The Scottish Government is grateful for all their efforts and will reflect on the vote.
“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our partners in education have continued to contribute to important work on the future of Scottish education, including the OECD’s independent review of Scotland’s curriculum. The OECD’s review is not finished but the OECD will be providing a summary of draft findings in preparation for their final stakeholder engagement session in March.
“The Scottish Government will consider the vote in Parliament and set out its response in due course.”
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