Jack McConnell: "Turning point"

However, the deal led to envious glances from unions south of the border.

They warned it could compound recruitment problems by leading to a "brain drain" from England.

There was also concern that local authorities would not be able to afford to fully implement the deal.

Exam chaos not repeated

After the chaos surrounding the delivery of exam results in the year 2000 there was much effort, and about �11m, put into ensuring that the debacle was not repeated.

There was much relief as a repeat of the fiasco, which saw thousands of students receive late, inaccurate or incomplete certificates for their Higher and Standard grade examinations, was avoided.

However, the Scottish Qualifications Authority was not allowed to enjoy its achievement.

The SQA was left embarrassed when it gave out wrong information about the pass rate for this year's Higher exams.

Exam results were delivered successfully

It announced a 7% increase in the Higher pass rate this year, when it was only 1.3%.

The statistical error fanned opposition party calls for further reform of the exams system.

The Scottish National Party's education spokesman, Mike Russell MSP, said he was "horrified" by the exam body's latest blunder, and argued that the SQA simply "could not handle data".

A month after the exam results were delivered, Mr McConnell announced proposals for the reform of the SQA.

Radical changes

He said he would reduce the size of the 24-strong SQA board to between seven and nine members.

He also announced an advisory board to give a voice to bodies with an interest in the qualifications system.

But the Scottish National Party said the statement failed to tackle the source of many of the problems - the merging of two separate organisations which performed different tasks for schools and colleges.

Mr McConnell told the Scottish Parliament that he wanted to simplify the exams system.

He said a consultation document would be published on "radical" changes to assessment. But he said scrapping the SQA was not on the agenda.

Borders parents protested against cuts

The Scottish Borders were the unexpected location for a fierce backlash against the council's education department.

It emerged during the summer that the department had overspent its budget by almost �4m.

Councillors moved to put in place an emergency package of cuts of around �1.5m in this year's budgets to balance the books.

The cuts provoked anger among school boards and teachers in the Borders, who turned out in their hundreds to protest.

Management weakness

Government auditors, brought in to find the reasons for the budget deficit, heavily criticised education department managers at Scottish Borders Council.

The report blamed the problems on serious management weaknesses, a lack of control and poor monitoring of budgets.

Another dispute which forced parents into action was the battle by St Mary's Episcopal Primary in Dunblane to retain its "opted out" status.

Campaigners at Scotland's only self-governing primary school won a temporary reprieve, stopping it being returned to local authority control until April 2002.

St Mary's Dunblane: "Opt-out status"

But the Scottish Executive rejected pleas from St Mary's to retain the status it has had since 1993.

In August, the then Education Minister Jack McConnell signed an order to place the school under the management of Stirling Council in January 2002.

But in December the Scottish Executive revised the order to allow parents fighting the decision to hear the outcome of their appeal.

Parents have already petitioned for a judicial review at the Court of Session, arguing that the decision to return the school to council control breached European human rights legislation and was based on political dogma.

Parent skills

Discipline in schools was high on Mr McConnell's education agenda.

Measures were outlined aimed at tackling school indiscipline, including plans for "sin bins" for the unruly.

The framework was the result of a task force which had been working to reduce the 35,000 exclusions seen in Scotland's schools last year.

The 36 recommendations included teaching disruptive pupils in separate classrooms, a uniform for every school and skills classes to help parents of children with discipline problems.

Cathy Jamieson: New education minister

When Mr McConnell was elected Scotland's first minister in November, Cathy Jamieson was plucked from the backbenches to become his unexpected replacement.

She said she intended to continue with Jack McConnell's plans to improve standards in schools and teaching.

She also announced that a new qualification would become mandatory for anyone applying for a head teacher post in less than four years' time.

A flagship government training scheme, which was scrapped in England amid allegations of fraud, was also closed in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive said that the Individual Learning Account (ILA) scheme would close with immediate effect after a review identified similar problems to those uncovered in England and Northern Ireland.

Skills shortage

Enterprise Minister Wendy Alexander said the decision had been taken in the "best interests of the public purse".

ILAs entitled people to a grant of up to �200 towards educational courses to tackle skills shortages but it soon emerged the system which delivered them was open to abuse.

In the higher education sector there were problems as the body which distributes grants to Scotland's universities and higher education institutions was heavily criticised by a Scottish Parliament committee.

The lifelong learning committee said that the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (Shefc) botched a review of the way courses are funded.

The committee called for the creation of an independent body to re-examine the funding of higher education courses - because it did not trust Shefc to do the job.

St Andrews University: Eyes of the world

The eyes of the world were on St Andrews University in September as Prince William became its most famous student.

The 19-year-old prince asked to be left alone by the media so that he could pursue his four-year history of art course in peace.

This request was widely observed, except by one film crew who remained in the Fife town after the world's media had left.

A right royal row erupted when it was discovered that crew belonged to Prince William's uncle, Prince Edward.