A special meeting of Argyll and Bute Council has been called to discuss a damning report into its education service.
Education Scotland produced the “deeply worrying” report following an inspection of the service.
The watchdog said the council must take “urgent and sustained action to address the significant areas for improvement identified throughout this report”.
It ordered the authority to “significantly improve young people’s attainment across the authority”.
Despite some strengths being identified, inspectors also encouraged the service to “improve the use of data, “improve relationships and communication, promoting a more positive ethos amongst all stakeholders”, and “improve the quality of strategic leadership and direction at all levels within the education authority”.
MSP for Argyll and Bute, Mike Russell, called the report “one of the worst ever published about the educational management of a local authority in Scotland”.
The special meeting of the council will be held on Friday at 10.30am in the council chamber to discuss and respond to the action points raised in the report.
A spokesman for the council said: “The council’s constitution includes a provision that requires a special meeting to be held, if at least a quarter of the members request it, to deal with a specific item of business.”
The issue is to be discussed the day before at a special meeting of the Community Services Committee on Thursday at 2pm.
However, many councillors who are not members of that committee wanted the chance to take part.
Councillors James Robb said: “It seems obvious to me that all councillors should be involved in rectifying the reported failings.”
