The proposals by education secretary John Swinney risk shifting schools from local authority control and creating more bureaucracy for headteachers, said Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS).
Ministers intend to give an extra £100 million for headteachers to address specific problems such as lack of staffing. Schools would also be shifted into regional clusters in an effort to cut educational inequalities between richer and poorer areas.
However, Mr Flanagan said the plans were untimely and would lead to excessive centralisation.
“It would be an absolute folly to have any kind of structural re-organisation of Scottish education at a time of reduced resources because it would be distracting attention from teaching and learning,” he told a summit of council leaders, unions and teaching leaders in Edinburgh.
“The notion that headteachers are accountants in terms of running major budgets is fanciful. In our discussions with
John Swinney we’ve been very clear that while we welcome direct money to schools, the issues around that are to do with the level of funding.”
He warned against extra responsibilities for headteachers, including the prospect of teachers being made legally responsible for pupils’ education.
The additional £100 million a year from 2017/18 will come from council tax reforms but local authorities say this is effectively using their resources to fund central government changes.
Stephanie Primrose, education spokeswoman for Cosla – which represents Scotland’s local authorities – said that without the local links and connected services, outcomes for disadvantaged people could worsen.
Cosla president David O’Neill warned against ministers acting as a “sole voice in this crucial debate”. He added: “We do not improve by simply centralising and taking powers from communities.”
A Scottish government spokeswoman said it would be for schools themselves to decide how to use the funding to raise attainment. No council would be financially worse off as a result of the reforms.
“It is important that more decisions about the life of schools are driven by the teachers and parents because we know that where this is the case, schools perform better. That’s why we are launching a governance review in September which will devolve decision-making and funding to schools.”
- Mr Flanagan from the EIS is among those to have written in SecEd recently on the challenges and priorities facing Scottish education in the coming months. Read this article at http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/blog/scottish-education-challenges-and-priorities/