ONE wonders what on earth families from across Argyll and Bute are expected to make of it all.

Education Scotland, the country’s schools’ inspectorate, has just published a damning report into the way the council runs its primaries and secondaries.

The report, one of the worst ever published by the body, grades the council’s performance as “weak” in four out of five categories including delivery, improvement and leadership.

The report also has a concerning critique on standards, reporting that pupils’ progress in literacy, numeracy and academic qualifications by the time they leave is lower than it should be.

Calling for “urgent and sustained” action the report concludes: “Overall... there remains considerable scope for further improvements in attainment.

“In several important measures of attainment, young people in Argyll and Bute do less well than learners who have similar needs and backgrounds from elsewhere.”

A public statement from Ann Marie Knowles, the council’s executive director of community services, said changes were being implemented, but she also criticised the inspection.

And an extraordinary paper prepared for the council’s community services committee shows the extent of the council’s antipathy towards the inspection process, which is now the subject of a formal complaint.

This unprecedented rebuttal of almost every step of the process includes a self-evaluation of performance which grades every category as “satisfactory” rather than “weak”.

It states: “The inspection process and the conduct of the inspection team have been the subject of serious and significant concerns which have been raised formally with Education Scotland.”

Concerns include use of out dated inspection benchmarks, last minute changes to the timetable and a lack of checking of statements by inspectors.

Other complaints focus on the conduct of members of the inspection team which suggests they “pre-judged” the outcome of the report, adopted an “adversarial” approach, and took an “inappropriate focus” on individual officers.

Time will tell what the voters of Argyll and Bute will conclude, but it is already clear how John Swinney, the Education Secretary, views the report.

Using it as an example of why he believes the status quo in Scottish education is no longer viable he said: “I cannot honestly put my hand on my heart and say every local authority in the country can provide the quality of support that their schools require.”

There is also the matter of the public reputation of the inspectorate wing of Education Scotland.

In a climate where public institutions which support education have taken a public battering, inspectors, while perhaps still viewed with suspicion and even a little fear, are still seen as providing an independent inspection process with a duty to report their professional judgements without fear or favour.