Cowards achieve nothing,” I was recently told by a Scottish educationalist who was talking about the SNP government. He was irked that so often the SNP started out bold but then backtracked, as he saw it.

They had introduced standardised assessments and then said that teacher judgement would trump them; they let inspection rates dwindle to the point that just 19 secondaries were inspected last year, but did not have the courage to scrap them altogether, he said. 

Now, the latest SNP compromise comes with councils over regional-improvement collaboratives. The government planned to introduce the new bodies in a bid to force authorities to share resources and expertise across boundaries, but they were controversial because they were to be run by regional directors appointed by the schools inspectorate, Education Scotland.

That meant there would be “no meaningful local democratic accountability for education in Scotland”, argued council umbrella body Cosla. But now it has been agreed that council leaders will appoint individuals to the post of regional “lead officer” or “coordinator”, and they will be expected to report to councils on progress, as well as provide updates to Education Scotland.

Perhaps fast-track teacher training scheme Teach First should just throw in the towel now and concentrate its lobbying efforts elsewhere - because even though the tender promised by the Scottish government for a new route into teaching to attract “high-quality graduates” did transpire this week, past experience tells us its style of on-the-job teacher education is just going to be too controversial for the SNP to stomach.

Unfair criticism?

But should the government be berated for listening? Is it a bad thing when you have politicians who are not so blinkered by ideology that they can be influenced and are willing to hammer out deals and compromise?

One teacher criticised a national newspaper on Twitter for using “negative terms like U-turn” to describe the education secretary John Swinney’s change of heart about regional collaboratives. The teacher said “why not ‘has listened and accepted our point’?”

It was clear when Swinney became education secretary that the lack of inter-council collaboration was a thorn in his side.

In the wake of the education governance plan published last summer - in which the vision for regional collaboratives was first unveiled - he spoke to Tes Scotland. One of the most prominent examples of councils collaborating and working together in education - the partnership between Stirling and Clackmannanshire - had hit the buffers, I pointed out. Swinney’s mood darkened. The pace with which Scottish councils had come together to pool resources had “frustrated” him as finance secretary, and now it was time “to get a move on”, he said.

Working together, Stirling and Clackmannanshire were only equivalent in population to an average-sized Scottish council; Clackmannanshire has just three secondary schools. Now - under the plans for regional-improvement collaboratives - these councils will work together again, but through the Forth and Almond Valley Collaborative, where they will also be joined by Falkirk and West Lothian.

That is going to happen largely unopposed because Swinney threatened to rob councils of much of the control they have over their biggest service: education.

One might wonder if that threat was ever real or just a starting point for negotiation. But irrespective of which is true, we now have councils committed to six regional collaboratives, and everyone feels like a winner. Is that a cowardly compromise - or is it just clever?

@Emma_Seith