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Given the scale of quango scrapping south of the border, the arguably is more reminiscent of a wee camp fire rather than a .

But the announcement by the education secretary of a marriage between and which produces information and resources for schools, has undoubtedly created a little heat in Scottish education.

Unusually there has been no apparent consultation with interested parties such as the teaching unions and the . And these parties didn't appear to receive the usual private heads-up of a significant speech and press release from Mr Russell.

Hostile responses could of course amount to pique or that well known Scottish phenomenon: "It wisnae my idea so I'm agin it."

There is after all much to commend the plan. On the face of it cohabitation should as Mr Russell says, cut red tape and enable freed resources "to go to the frontline". (War zone vocabulary is arguably a brave choice by an education minister as one of his predecessors often maintained that the media's reporting of classroom indiscipline conjured up an impression of Beirut streets in the Seventies.)

However there's concern that the creation from the merger of one ginormous body, the , will strengthen the control of government ministers over what happens in the classroom.

Privately there's concern that inspectors will be unlikely to attribute problems e.g. concerning implementation of the on the materials and guidance offered by their own agency. Teachers suspect they will be in the line of fire for the bulk of any blame for problems.

Already teachers and local councils resent reports from HMIe partly because it is not known for blaming problems on government policy. For example, many a modern languages teacher felt that discipline problems in certain classes were directly linked to the national policy that prevailed for many years of requiring all pupils to study a modern language even if they were barely literate in English.

Following the new merger HMIe will be no more independent of the Scottish government than it is now. The teaching union points out that despite reconfiguration and scrapping of many quangos in England, the inspectorate there, , will retain the independence it has long enjoyed. As Ofsted is answerable to Parliament not the education minister of the day it is - on paper at least - free to speak out honestly.

Speaking out - there's a thought. How on earth are we going to refer to this mouthful of a new agency - Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency. Sekia? Sequeea? Sekeyea? Answers on the usual postcard please.