Ruth Davidson wants to take schools from local councils

Scotland should follow the New Zealand education model and take schools out of the hands of councils to be run by local private groups, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives has claimed.

Ruth Davidson said schoolchildren were currently trapped in a postcode lottery system and cited evidence from schools inspectorate Education Scotland, which says almost a third of secondary schools in Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas are either “weak” or “unsatisfactory”.

Ms Davidson promised to support the Scottish Government if they implemented recommendations by Sir Ian Wood, where less academically-orientated 15 and 16-year-olds would be given the option to go down a more vocational route.

She also reiterated her pledge, first made at the Scottish Tory conference in June, that children would be given an “opportunity voucher” to allow them to transfer to a better performing school if the Tories were in power in Scotland.