The lady vanishes: beleaguered education secretary accused of fleeing schools debate

Published on Thursday 24 September 2009 21:54

EDUCATION secretary Fiona Hyslop was clinging on to her job last night after failing to defend the Scottish Government's schools policy.

Ms Hyslop was described as "silent and wretched" as she sat through a debate on why the number of class teachers in Scotland has fallen by 1,000.

Despite having overall responsibility for schools, she decided to not participate in the debate, leaving it to her deputy, Keith Brown, leading to claims that she was "running away from the issue".

During the debate she moved from her front row seat further back and at one point left the chamber.

Her future as a minister was again called into question during First Minister's Questions when Alex Salmond was asked to explain why his government had broken its election pledge to reduce P1 to P3 class sizes to 18.

Earlier this week, Ms Hyslop announced legislation to create a maximum class size of 25. Her day was made worse when the Scottish Government suffered a defeat in Parliament after the debate on teacher numbers.

Opposition parties say class sizes and teacher numbers are on a long list of broken education promises that includes: matching the previous government's school building programme "brick-for-brick" when so far she has commissioned none; failing to provide a minimum of two hours of PE and a guarantee of five days' outdoor education for every school pupil; and not managing to increase nursery teachers by 50 per cent.

In higher education, she has taken flak for failing to keep the promise of paying off student debt.

Labour leader Iain Gray read out comments from a teacher who said he would like to give Ms Hyslop a calculator to get her figures right, adding he would rather give her a P45.

"The education secretary has made Alex Salmond took like a fool," said Mr Gray. "Will the First Minister make that teacher's day and give the education secretary her P45?"

Mr Salmond was unable to say when the target of a maximum class size of 18 would be delivered. Then, in response to a question from Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie, he gave his beleaguered minister a vote of confidence.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond Ms Hyslop was "not ducking the debate" and that Mr Brown was the "appropriate minister" for the debate. He added that there were "no plans" for a reshuffle.