Fiona Hyslop has been made culture and external affairs minister
Under-fire education secretary, Fiona Hyslop, has been demoted in a reshuffle of Scottish government ministers. Ms Hyslop has come under sustained opposition attack on issues including falling teacher numbers, cutting class sizes and school buildings. Culture Minister Michael Russell has been promoted to education secretary, while Ms Hyslop will take on his previous position.
First Minister Alex Salmond said education needed a “fresh look”. Mr Salmond, who has in the past defended Ms Hyslop’s record, said: “Schools policy has reached a difficult period, with our disagreement with many local authorities about their failure to reduce class sizes by sustaining teacher numbers. While we have achieved a new record low in primary school class sizes.
It is appropriate that a fresh look is taken at this and other schooling issues to break the impasse for the benefit of parents, teachers and children. I believe that Michael Russell can bring new thinking to this tough task.”
The reshuffle – the first change in the Scottish cabinet since the SNP came to power – came just days after Scottish government statistics showed a fall in teacher numbers of 1,348 over the past year. Ms Hyslop branded the drop “unacceptable”, while blaming councils for spending cash earmarked for teachers on “other purposes”. The first minister said Ms Hyslop would do an “excellent job” as minister for culture and external affairs, a role which includes Europe and relations with the UK government.
However, responsibility for the constitution has been stripped out of the post.
Mr Salmond said he had now personally taken responsibility for the forthcoming bill on an independence referendum.
