Book excerpt: Devolution has increased the attention given to Scottish education by legislators and the whole system has adjusted to take account of the Parliament and Executive in Edinburgh. The authors of this book seek to elucidate the extent and nature of these changes to the way that Scottish education is governed from pre-school to the universities. The changes have affected local government as well - the 1990's, far from preparing for devolution, brought new structures of local government that were bound to pose problems for education administrators once the Parliament was born. The book examines how these key issues, such as teachers' pay and conditions of service, were tackled in the 1990s and are handled now in the context of devolution.