PLANS to introduce new educational regions to help run schools are a threat to the Scottish education system, teachers' leaders have warned.
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA), also criticised proposals to give more powers and resources directly to schools.
The attack comes after the SNP manifesto included plans to create "school clusters" and "educational regions" while transferring additional power directly to headteachers. It also pledges to "extend to individual schools responsibilities that currently sit solely with local authorities."
Read more: Secret Scottish government plans to shake-up schools system
Critics argue the move runs counter to local democracy by bypassing the role of councillors elected by the community to run services.
Speaking ahead of his speech to the SSTA annual general meeting in Crieff, Mr Searson said: "Local authorities are part of our good education system. There is a need for a sustainable education system to support schools with local authorities entrusted and responsible for schools.
"Other suggestions by the government may undermine local democratic authority control and could threaten the whole education system in Scotland."
Mr Searson said councils were already raising attainment and ensuring young people progressed into positive destinations when they left school whilst facing financial cuts year on year and fewer and fewer staff.
He added: "If the system is not working.... you do not go and undermine and destroy it. None of these measures has been proposed by the SSTA and not to my knowledge has another teacher union campaigned for these changes."
Mr Searson went on to welcome the £750m fund to help close the attainment gap between rich and poor, but questioned why the money was being given direct to schools.
He added: "This would appear to undermine the role of the local authority and put additional unwanted pressure, responsibility and bureaucracy on teachers and headteachers in schools."
Stephanie Primrose, education spokeswoman for council umbrella body COSLA, welcomed the support for local authorities.
She said: "Scotland has a good education system, built on the strong professionalism of teachers, school leaders and other staff.
"However, we are not complacent and local government is committed to improving attainment and reducing the impact that poverty and deprivation has on our children’s ability to learn."
John Swinney, the Education Secretary, said he wanted to work with trade unions to improve Scottish education.
He said: "As the SSTA general secretary has said, Scottish education has many strengths and, working together, I am determined we will build on these so that every child benefits.
Read more: Radical plan to involve parents and pupils in school decisions
“I am looking forward to speaking with teachers, headteachers, parents, young people and many others across Scotland. Our partnership with SSTA and other teaching unions will continue, and I will continue to focus on what we can do to improve assessment and qualifications in our schools."
Earlier this year when questioned about the manifesto First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she did not plan to introduce English-style academies in Scotland, which see schools operate entirely independently of councils.
However, she emphasised her willingness to consider "things that we didn't previously think we would do" and accepted that some changes in education would prove controversial.
The manifesto states: "International evidence shows that when parents and communities are more involved with schools, children's attainment improves so we will review school governance with a view to ensuring that parents, families and communities play a bigger role.
"We will extend to individual schools responsibilities that sit solely with local authorities, allocate more resources directly to headteachers and enable them to take decisions based on local circumstances. We will encourage school clusters and create new educational regions to decentralise management and support."
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said that regional boards could have a valuable role to play in helping headteachers to work together, particularly in council areas which controlled relatively few schools. However, he made clear that his union would fight any plans to diminish the role of councils in the delivery of education.
He said: "We think there is a crucial role for local authorities in terms of localism and accountability. If we are looking at any structures around regional boards then they should involve local authorities, it shouldn’t be a move towards the centre but a better way of supporting schools and helping them to work together.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland 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