ARE KEY TO SUCCESS

and at the heart of that is an idea of attainment administrators – one in each local authority. But they are all seconded posts.

“That means 32 less teachers in our schools for almost two years.”

Scottish Lib Dem education spokesman Liam McArthur said:“We believe that education works best when it creates opportunity for all, regardless of background.

“Sadly, the SNP in the Scottish Government have all too often taken their eye off the ball in meeting this important task.

“On their watch, class sizes have increased, the gap between the performance of students from the with proper data, which was shared. It showed which teaching methods were most effective.

Extra support was given to children who didn’t have facilities or parental support at home.

The Scottish system needs to have a shock to it. We need more testing starting at primary school. There are ways of doing it that are less stressful. It needs to be done when children are least well off and most well off backgrounds has scarcely improved and 130,000 college places have been cut.

“The SNP have had eight years to get this right. Parents, teachers and pupils will want to know why the SNP only appear to be waking up now to the challenge of closing the attainment gap.

“If we are to see improvements, more focus on the important early years is needed, delivering our ambitions to expand free childcare provision to all of Scotland’s young people.

“We also need to see a commitment to target resources on the between four and seven or eight because they need to learn to read and count effectively.

The Government’s attainment for change policy aimed at getting children from deprived backgrounds into university is really shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.” ● Lindsay Paterson is Edinburgh University’s professor of educational policy. individuals who need extra support, rather than the area-based approach preferred by SNP ministers.”

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the teaching union EIS, said: “The idea from Angela that poverty shouldn’t be a barrier to progress in schools is an aspiration but schools can’t eradicate the impact of poverty.

“Schools can make a difference but what we need to be saying to the Scottish Government is there needs to be a real target of additional resources where it is most needed.

“If you look at the improvements in the system like curriculum of excellence, they can raise standards but they won’t close the gap. The most successful take the most advantage where there are progressive changes.

“The Government have pledged £100 million in additional resources for the attainment challenge but this money needs to go into educational staffing levels. We need more teaching staff, support staff and parental support.”

LABOUR’S BATTLE OVER NEW BLOOD

SEE PAGE 10