Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 2: Scotland
9. Departmental responsibilities
Scottish Office Education and Industry Department

9.31 The Scottish education system was structured differently, and was quite separate, from the system in England and Wales. As in the rest of Great Britain, responsibility for school education lay with local government education authorities (LEAs). However, the school curriculum in Scotland was not prescribed by statute but was devised by education authorities and head teachers. Guidance was available from the Secretary of State and the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum. HM Inspectors of Schools were responsible for independent evaluation of education standards and for advising the Secretary of State on all aspects of education. Mr N R Atkinson was the Principal in the Department's Curriculum and Examination Branch during 1990, when concerns were raised about the safety of dissecting bovine eyeballs (see paragraphs 10.53-10.60 below).