SCOTTISH Labour leader Johann Lamont yesterday said the SNP’s education policy has created an unfair system in Scotland.
In a speech to mark a year at the head of the party, Ms Lamont pointed to Scottish Government figures that show just five pupils from the poorest postcodes in Dundee got three or more A grades in the 2011 tranche of exams.
She also said a debate was needed over whether students should pay a contribution towards their education.
The graduate endowment saw students under the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition at Holyrood pay money towards their education after they graduated.
It was scrapped by the SNP, who described it as “back end tuition fees.”
However, Ms Lamont who is spearheading a review of Labour’s policy on universal services such as free prescriptions claimed a return to the graduate endowment is “the most obvious option” to address what she called the current inequalities in colleges and universities.
She said: “We don’t support up-front tuition fees because people perceive that as a barrier. But we also have to recognise that, currently, the tuition-fees policy is being paid for by colleges. That is simply not sustainable and I think we need to have an honesty about how we perhaps make sure that those with the broadest shoulders bear the greater burden.”
She added: “This argument is sometimes framed as ‘you are either in favour of free education or you are not.’
“I’m saying we need to have a much more mature debate about what is actually happening and a modest contribution.”
SNP MSP Clare Adamson who sits on the education committee said Ms Lamont was “preparing to commit Labour to delivering Tory policy” through her education proposals.
She added: “As with the fudge offered by her cuts commission, the Labour leader is treating the people of Scotland like fools.
“We have once again seen that the only certainty of a No vote is more Tory cuts in Scotland.
“Scotland is delivering far more successful policies and outcomes with the degree of independence that we already have in the Scottish Parliament and with the full powers of an independent Scotland we could do the same in all the areas currently reserved to Westminster, such as macroeconomic policy, welfare and defence.”
kiandrews@thecourier.co.uk