CHANGE is coming to Scotland’s schools, the Deputy First Minister has said.

Giving a major speech on Scottish education yesterday afternoon, John Swinney expressed disappointment that in a recent consultation so many people working in the sector were resistant to doing things differently.

The status quo, he warned was “not an option”. The Scottish Government has recently put forward proposals that take money out of the hands of councils and gives it directly to head teachers.

Swinney said the Government were “still digesting” about 11,000 responses to those proposals, but said the number of people in Scottish education against change is “worrying”.

Speaking at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh, East Lothian, he said: “Already it is clear that there is a strong body of opinion that does not accept the need for change and what is perhaps most worrying is that body of opinion is from within Scottish education.

“Looking at the data, the status quo is not an option. Change is needed, change is happening and more change is coming.”

He said teachers and parents were best placed to make decisions about school pupils and teachers “must be free to teach”, with public services focusing on the individual “not their own organisation”.

He added: “This is a vision of empowerment and devolution. Devolution from local authorities to schools to include head teachers, teachers, parents and communities, and devolution from a national to a local or regional level.”

Swinney made a series of pledges, saying: “Our reforms will be built on the best evidence of what will work. They will empower schools. They will not take the overly prescriptive top-down approach, so damaging elsewhere in these islands, and they will rightly put children and young people right at the heart of Scottish education.

“There will be major changes and I know that change is difficult. It would be easy to accept the status quo but doing more of the same will not achieve our ambitions for our children and young people and their future.

“Therefore, we will change our approach to the delivery of education.”

Swinney plans to publish a next steps document in June on the review proposals and funding. He also announced a new training scheme for head teachers and revealed a partnership with the Hunter Foundation to create head teacher leadership academies.

Scottish Greens education spokesman Ross Greer accused the Government of trying to centralise power: “When there are 4000 fewer teachers than a decade ago, 500 fewer additional support needs teachers than in 2010 and hundreds of support staff gone, it’s beyond me how the Government can turn a blind eye to that and focus instead on ‘structural reforms’ when there isn’t the evidence that structures are the problem, nor that changing them will improve the education of our young people.”

Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said teachers and education experts were “crying out” for change.

He added: “The change we need isn’t the one that Mr Swinney proposes. He shouldn’t confuse people disagreeing with his reforms as a lack of appetite for change.

“In the decade that the SNP have been in power, we have 4000 fewer teachers, 1000 fewer support staff and budgets have been cut by hundreds of millions of pounds.”

The Educational Institute of Scotland welcomed the Government’s commitment to improving education, and called for a pay increase for teachers to help tackle recruitment issues and stressed that all teachers needed support.