SCOTTISH schools are to be given unprecedented legal responsibilities for the education of pupils under a radical shake-up announced by Education Secretary John Swinney.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament Mr Swinney said he would introduce new legislation next year which will see schools held directly accountable for the first time.
Under the current Standards in Scotland’s Schools Act passed in 2000 only councils are under a duty to educate pupils to their "fullest potential".
The classroom revolution will also see millions of pounds of funding given directly to headteachers to allow for key decisions to be made at school level - with a new national formula established to provide a universal standard for staffing after concerns of inequalities across Scotland.
In addition, in September this year Mr Swinney will launch a review of the way schools are run which will examine how to "empower" schools and parents and "decentralise management".
This, he said, would be targeted at the "encouragement" of school clusters within new educational regions designed to ensure that parents, colleges, universities and employers could all support efforts to raise attainment.
The current legal responsibility for councils to deliver education will remain in place.
Mr Swinney said: "Currently, legal responsibilities for delivering education and raising standards in our schools sit largely with education authorities, not with the schools and teachers that teach our children and young people every day.
"We will address this imbalance by extending to individual schools responsibilities that currently sit with local authorities. We will introduce a new Education Bill in the second year of this Parliament."
Mr Swinney went on to say he wanted to create the "right structures" to enable children, parents, teachers and communities to participate fully in school life.
He added: "In September I will launch a review of governance.... it will consider the changes needed to education to empower our teachers and schools, seek to devolve decision making and funding to schools and communities and support the development of school clusters and new educational regions.
"At the same time, we will develop proposals for a fair and transparent national funding formula to ensure that resources go where they are needed most."
Last night, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, which represents a majority of teachers, warned against target setting at school level and the removal of control from councils.
He said: "If these proposals are about enhancing support for schools and ensuring teachers have a fair say in the allocation of resources then this will be welcome.
"However, if there is any suggestion of centralising control of schools and reducing the role of democratically elected local authorities in running education, that would be an issue of huge concern for the teaching profession."
Mr Flanagan added that the timescale involved was "challenging" and risked repeating previous errors by not allowing schools time to consider the proposals.
A spokesman for council body Cosla said: "We will study this plan closely and take time to fully assess our position. Cosla has already told Mr Swinney they share the same educational aspirations as Scottish Government, that they are keen to work with him and he needs to keep dialogue open and ongoing."
Mr Swinney's wide-ranging plan Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education, called for a new focus on literacy in the first three years of primary schools to close the "vocabulary gap" with school inspectors focusing directly on progress in this area.
Schools body Education Scotland has been instructed to provide new guidance for teachers on Curriculum for Excellence and Mr Swinney said unnecessary
workload would be stripped away to remove the current burden on teachers.
He also promised a "revolution" in transparency on school performance with the ParentZone website featuring additional information on every school including attendance rates, children’s progress and grades from school inspections.
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