EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney confirmed yesterday that school “empowerment” in Scotland will be achieved through collaboration rather than legislation.
A year after he announced the Education Bill – which had set out to make reforms to the way schools are run – was being abandoned, Swinney confirmed the Scottish Government would not be bringing forward legislation in this area.
The Bill had included the introduction of a new headteachers’ charter, giving them more power over the curriculum, recruitment and budgets.
Swinney said: “It is clear to me we would not have come so far in such a short period of time if we had relied on introducing an Education Bill.”
READ MORE: John Swinney shelves Education Bill
He confirmed: “The Scottish Government will not introduce an Education Bill as means of driving school empowerment. Instead we will continue to work in partnership with local government, teacher representatives and the wider education sector.”
The Bill was dropped last June, with Swinney saying changes could be made faster without taking legislation through Holyrood. At the time he pledged he would come back to MSPs in a year, saying a bill could be brought forward again if not enough progress had been made.
While he said work was at a “relatively early stage”, Swinney insisted “progress is being made in a genuinely collaborative spirit”.
A headteachers’ charter is being published without the backing of legislation to ensure schools have more decision-making powers over learning and teaching, as well as staffing and budgets.
Swinney told MSPs that “local authorities are taking positive steps to embrace the principles of empowerment”. He added: “Real progress has been made and the practice of empowerment and school-based decision-making is becoming increasingly evident in our schools.”
Councillor Stephen McCabe, the children and young people’s spokesman at the local government body Cosla, said over the last year it had worked with ministers to “ensure that we deliver an empowered education system that makes certain all children and young people get the most from their time at school”.
“We have always been clear that these changes can be achieved by taking a non-legislative route,” he said.
“As such we very much welcome the fact that the deputy first minister supports and recognises the good progress that has been made and we will continue to take forward the reforms to Scottish education without the need for legislation.”
Labour education spokesman Iain Gray claimed: “Everyone knows the Education Bill was dropped because no-one supported it and everyone knew Mr Swinney would be back here claiming great progress so he could finally put his flagship legislation out if its misery.”
Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the Education Secretary had “no hard facts whatsoever to prove his contention” that progress had been made.
Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott also hit out, saying: “If the Education Secretary wants to work with teachers as he said to Parliament today, why doesn’t he actually listen to P1 teachers and drop national testing of four and five-year-old boys and girls?”
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