Schools of Ambition programme

[3][4] This would then be spent towards implementing a transformation plan that could include environmental changes, investment into curricula and staff, and cooperation with businesses, sixth forms and the local community.

First Minister Jack McConnell was revealed to have at least agreed with the "principle" of private funding after the negotiations, although "no firm decisions" were made.

McConnell and his education minister Peter Peacock insisted that these donors would have no influence in these schools and that they would be completely comprehensive.

They would be modelled after North Lanarkshire's specialist schools, which were unselective comprehensives, and would specialise in subjects like art, sport and music.

[17][18] The programme was built-upon in the November 2004 education white paper Ambitious, Excellent Schools: Our Agenda for Action.

[19] They would then submit a transformation plan to the panel, which could include investment into environmental changes, curricula and staff, and cooperation with businesses, sixth forms and the local community.

At the same time, Education Minister Peter Peacock decided to open up bidding for the third tranche, claiming that the programme had made good progress.

[29][30] Three more would also join: the third tranche was finalised in March 2007, leaving 51 Schools of Ambition across Scotland's 32 local authority areas.

Hyslop had previously welcomed the programme when in opposition for bringing more support to schools, but stressed that it would benefit only a few schoolchildren.

This source also claimed that ministers in the government had avoided using the term "selection" as they did not yet know how the new schools would work and feared misrepresentation of the programme in the media.

[4][29] Meanwhile, her Conservative counterpart James Douglas-Hamilton believed it was "grossly insufficient" and did nothing to address the alleged two-tier system in Scottish state education,[32][40] with his colleague Brian Monteith proposing extra pupil funding for all schools.

[42] The Scottish Socialist Party criticised the programme for ignoring class-size reduction and introducing school funding from the private sector.