Claims the Scottish Government “watered down” a report on education to remove criticisms about how well schools are performing have been rejected by First Minister Alex Salmond.
Labour leader Johann Lamont told MSPs a “decline in standards” of attainment levels had been included in a draft report that was prepared by public spending watchdogs at Audit Scotland.
But she said these were not included in the final report, which was published by the Accounts Commission.
The final report said councils’ spending on education fell by 5% in real terms between 2010/11 and 2012/13, largely as a result of employing fewer staff.
It also said there was “a considerable gap between Scotland and the top performing countries”.
During First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, Labour claimed a draft report stated “international attainment surveys have provided evidence that Scotland’s educational attainment levels relative to some other countries are falling”.
The draft report was also said to state “overall levels of attainment have only improved marginally”, and that “comparingsimilar levels of qualifications with other countries in the UK identifies a much slower pace of improvement for Scotland”.
Ms Lamont said these comments had been included in Audit Scotland’s original report “before the Scottish Government got their hands on it”.
She added: “In the final report those criticisms disappear because the Scottish Government didn’t want the public to know.
“The decline in standards is taken out. The fact that the rest of the UK is improving faster than Scotland is taken out.
“In the draft report the truth about our schools was in, but in the final report it was watered down, and we are entitled to know who took that decision.”
Mr Salmond insisted international comparisons showed Scotland’s position was “declining across all ranges” under Labour, but this had now been reversed.
An Audit Scotland spokesman said: “This report followed the normal process for all Audit Scotland draft reports of checking for accuracy with relevant bodies.
“The published report is the one signed off by the Accounts Commission for Scotland.”