OPPOSITION is mounting to plans for a radical shake-up of the way Scottish schools are run.
Teaching unions branded the proposals a "huge distraction" on the eve of a summit organised by John Swinney, the new Education Secretary.
The intervention comes just days after councils warned that hasty changes to the country's education system "could do irreparable damage" for future generations.
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The SNP manifesto for the Holyrood election included a proposal to encourage school clusters and "create new educational regions" to decentralise management and support.
It also pledged to "extend to individual schools responsibilities that currently sit solely with local authorities, allocate more resources directly to headteachers and enable them to take decisions based on local circumstances".
Mr Swinney has organised the summit to discuss the proposals with key organisations including teaching unions, councils and professional bodies such as Ades, which represents directors of education.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said: "It is clear the last thing Scottish education needs is structural reorganisation.
"This would be a huge distraction and, frankly, a waste of resources and I would caution the new Cabinet Secretary against such a move."
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, said local authorities were best placed to bring services together to improve education.
He said: "There is a need for a sustainable education system with local authorities entrusted and responsible for schools, but some government suggestions may undermine local democratic authority control and could threaten the gains already achieved."
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Earlier this week, local government body Cosla urged the Education Secretary to "proceed with caution" ahead of the summit on school reform and raising attainment.
However, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said ministers were committed to the creation of new educational regions to "decentralise management", support teachers and help parents drive more school decisions.
She said: "The education summit will bring together a wide range of people, all with an interest in improving Scottish education, to identify how we can work together to make the substantial progress required to close the attainment gap and raise standards for all children in Scotland."
Meanwhile, a report by the right of centre think tank Reform Scotland called for schools to have "greatly increased autonomy" to empower individual staff.
And the report, written by Keir Bloomer, an independent educational consultant, said there was as much of a threat to school autonomy from government agencies.
Describing the the capacity of councils to support schools as insufficient he added: "Severe cuts in local authority resources over the last few years have now reduced this capacity further... to the point in many council areas where it is very questionable whether schools receive much worthwhile benefit from the connection.
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"At present, the threat from government is greater than the threat from councils. It is hard for governments to resist the temptation to micromanage, but they should, because it just doesn't work.
"There are few initiatives that are not accompanied by a management group composed of government, national agencies, unions, Ades and other ubiquitous partners. This kind of consensus has meant little more than dominance by elites serving a variety of vested interests and able to squeeze out all other voices."
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