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Scottish education secretary 'to examine Swedish school model'
12 March 2010
Scotland's education secretary has embarked on a fact-finding mission to Scandinavia to examine alternative school models.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning Michael Russell MSP will fly to Finland on Sunday, where he is scheduled to inspect a representative secondary school, and will then continue to Stockholm, Sweden, for an introduction to the country's own education system.
However, according to Labour Education Spokesman Des McNulty MSP the endeavour may have come too late.
He commented: "The broken promises on class-size reductions, in teacher and support staff numbers [and] the cuts in school budgets […] are all the responsibility of the current SNP government.
"I'm not convinced that structural reform will overcome these problems."
Mr Russell's trip follows a public declaration that he is open to suggestions from local authorities on alternative methods for running schools.
Mr Russell was elected the parliamentary representative for the South of Scotland in 1999.