New powers to allow Mike Russell to ?hire and fire? college boards

UNDER-fire education secretary Michael Russell is set to be handed new powers to hire and fire college boards, it emerged today.

? Opposition parties are calling for plans allowing Education Secretary Mike Russell new powers to hire and fire college boards to be ditched

? Mike Russell criticised after chairman of Stow College board ?forced? to quit after spat with minister after secretly recording a private meeting

? Both Mike Russell and Alex Salmond had to apologise to Parliament on Thursday following misleading statements over college funding

Opposition parties are now calling for the plans to be ditched after Mr Russell found himself at the centre of a political storm last week amid claims of bullying and misleading Parliament.

But the call was dismissed as ?petty point-scoring? by a spokesman for Mr Russell.

Teaching leaders also waded into the row calling for an end to the ?personal spats and party political squabbling? of recent days.

Stow College board chairman Kirk Ramsay quit last week after a spat with the SNP minister and the controversy culminated in Alex Salmond and Mr Russell both being forced to issue embarrassing apologies to Parliament yesterday after misleading statements about college funding.

Ministers currently have powers to remove college board members over mismanagement, but new reforms of the sector will see this power extended to situations where a college of or regional board appears at risk of failing.

Labour education spokesman Hugh Henry said on Friday that Parliament must act to stop these changes.

?After Alex Salmond?s apology to parliament was dragged out of him, we now need Mike Russell to apologise to college staff, students, the 20,000 people on college waiting lists and the people of Scotland for the lies he told,? Mr Henry said.

?If Alex Salmond couldn?t do the right thing and sack him, and Mike Russell won?t do the decent thing and resign, we need at least to make sure that the Education Secretary?s power to bully and intimidate is curbed.

?The SNP government has plans to give Mike Russell the power to hire and fire college chairs and board members. That is at the heart of his power to bully and intimidate college leaders and must not happen. The power must be dropped from the SNP?s legislative plans.

?This is an education secretary who either lies, or is so incompetent he doesn?t know if college budgets are going up or being cut. He is manifestly unfit to run Scotland?s schools, colleges and universities.?

Mr Ramsay quit earlier this week after Mr Russell called for his head. The college chair had recorded a private meeting on the future of the college sector on a ?smart pen? and shared this with others. But Mr Ramsay insisted that 80-100 people had been present and denied behaving in a surreptitious manner.

A spokesman for Mr Russell dismissed Mr Henry?s criticism.

?This is pathetic ? after making 10 different resignation calls for just about every member of the Scottish Cabinet, Labour can?t even stick to their latest demand for more than 24 hours,? he said.

?The First Minister put the record straight and it is time for Labour to accept that and start focussing on the priorities of the people of Scotland instead of petty point-scoring. The Scottish Government is supporting our young people at college, helping them into work through opportunities for all and working to improve further education across Scotland with new college buildings, better courses and increased support for students.?

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) hit out at the political row.

?While we want to see Scotland?s Further Education sector high on the news agenda, it was disappointing this week that this was based around personal spats and party-political squabbling,? he said.

The main college grant for learning and teaching has been cut by 20% and cost thousands of jobs in the past two years, Mr Flanagan said, while 44,000 college places were lost last year at a time of soaring applications.

?At a time of record youth unemployment, this is a scandal,? he added.

Labour are also calling on the Stewart Maxwell, the SNP convener of Holyrood?s education Committee to u-turn on his refusal to allow an inquiry into Mr Russell?s behaviour.

?Mike Russell clearly is not running education properly and it is the duty of the Scottish parliament to investigate his wrongdoing,? Mr Henry added.

?It is our duty to Scotland?s pupils, students and parents and the SNP cannot block that for party political reasons.?

A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: ?Any member of the Committee is free to suggest items to be added to the Committee?s work programme. The work programme is regularly discussed by the whole Committee.?

Meanwhile the Tories say they have uncovered a ?15 million shift in budget which shows that the funding fall between this year, 2011/12, and next could be far higher than first thought.

The statistics from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) revealed the First Minister?s claim that the 2012-13 college budget is ?546 million is based on the inclusion of a ?15 million transformation fund. But the Scottish Government?s own Spring Budget Revision indicates that the same ?15 million is in fact part of the 2011-12 budget.

That would make the 2011-12 figure ?570 million compared with ?531 million next year, representing a drop significantly more than the one per cent Mr Salmond told the Scottish Parliament on Thursday.

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said: ?Even with the severity of an emergency statement to parliament hanging over him, Alex Salmond has still managed to create further confusion over this.

Source: http://www.scotsman.com/new-powers-to-allow-mike-russell-to-hire-and-fire-college-boards-1-2641446

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