MAGINE if instead of Father Christmas you actually got the Easter Bunny at your school Christmas party. No temptingly gift-wrapped presents for the children, no “ho, ho, ho” and not a reindeer or sled in sight. Just a hop, skip and jump with perhaps a little chocolate Easter egg if you were lucky. Something of the unseasonal sort has just happened to Scottish education.

Jack McConnell’s night of the long dirks reshuffle has produced not a Minister for Education in the Scottish Cabinet, speaking up for schools and those who use them or work in them: instead it has resulted in education (the second largest area of devolved responsibility) being left to a junior outside the Cabinet, while the seat at the top table is reserved for other concerns.

Worse still, the change has neither been announced to the Scottish Parliament, nor brought for debate there. Instead the news was posted on a website after the event, and sneaked into a speech about something else, four days after it took place.

No one doubts that there is a need to ensure that children are protected and assisted by our still new, if slightly tarnished, Parliament. My own depute, Irene McGugan, with years of experience as a social worker in local authority employment (the hard edge of child social work), has been a constant voice for children’s rights in the Parliament, working with others such as Labour’s Scott Barrie through the All Party Group on Children.

The Education, Culture and Sport Committee is hard at work preparing a Bill that should - providing it gets a fair wind from the Executive - bring about the much-needed introduction of a children’s commissioner before the next Scottish elections.

My colleague Gil Paterson has devoted much time to the issues of violence against women and children, and Margo MacDonald has undertaken detailed and painstaking research and advocacy for secure zones for prostitution in the light of the Edinburgh experiment which has secured - in the last year - the elimination of child prostitutes on the streets of Edinburgh (something most of us hoped had been banished with Victorian gaslight).

But progress for children cannot be undertaken in isolation from progress in education. Identifying those at risk is often first done in schools. Schools have a major role to play in helping to overcome social inclusion and alleviating the scars of poverty. Education is, in greater or lesser part, also an activity in caring for children. The two things go together and only a Cabinet minister carrying the concerns of Scotland’s schools alongside concern for Scotland’s children could bring to our new democracy the passion, commitment and practical experience that could make a real difference.

The very concept of community schools - and that of the school community, which is not quite the same thing - means that the old fragmented approach to policy will not do. Any primary teacher will tell you that nutrition, nurture and meeting need prior to the formal school years are the things that will pay dividends: but they will also tell you that the right way to approach such issues is with the co-operation of teachers in day to day contact with families in need and in collaboration with a range of professionals.

In other words, Cathy Jamieson must lead a mixed team, all of whom have the same aims for children, rather than hive herself off into one area and allow the rest to be someone else’s problem.

Of course, there may be method in Jack’s madness. If he is really interested in introducing specialist schools, if he wants to go on increasing public-private partnerships despite the discredited downsides, if he is determined to hive off the Scottish Qualifications Authority despite all the evidence of the past two years - then the Kay Guevara of Cumnock is not the person to agree to do it. From his position as the ex-minister still inclined to meddle, it may be best to leave it all to a pliable Liberal. A former deputy might just be the suitable fall guy.

There are real challenges ahead for children, parents and teachers. Jack McConnell has already weakened the chance of meeting them by a flawed reshuffle and a false distinction in his Government. If he is also intent on being Education Minister by proxy, then instead of a new dawn Scottish education is about to enter once more into the political dark ages.

Michael Russell is SNP Shadow Minister for Children and Education.