MINISTERS have been accused of ditching a flagship scheme to drive up standards by twinning schools across council boundaries after just three years.

In 2013 the Scottish Government announced an initiative to partner underperforming schools with those punching above their weight in exams.

Michael Russell, the then Education Secretary, said the Scottish Improvement Partnership Programme (SIPP) - based on a model developed in Ontario - would produce "real improvement" and be "long-term".

Read more: Planners back one of Scotland's biggest education developments - despite objections

A £700,000 pilot project was set up between a number of local authorities, but national schools’ body Education Scotland has now confirmed there will be no new funding, despite a positive evaluation by Glasgow University.

The Scottish Government said the lessons learned on partnership working would be taken forward as part of its latest policy to close the attainment gap between rich and poor - the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

However, opposition politicians said the original aims of the scheme had never been delivered and accused the SNP government of short-termism.

Iain Gray, education spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party, said: “This is a classic case of the SNP's approach to government in general and education in particular. A ministerial announcement with full fanfare, then forget about it and move on to the next photo opportunity.

"At the launch of partnership schools, Michael Russell made a point of saying it was for the long term, but in fact it was as short term as ideas come. Yet the evaluation of the pilot was positive, with benefits demonstrated."

Liz Smith, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, added: "This is yet another example of a headlining grabbing approach unsupported by coherent strategic thinking for the longer term. It is typical of the last decade of SNP schools policy."

Read more: Planners back one of Scotland's biggest education developments - despite objections

Dr Alan Britton, a senior teacher from Glasgow University's School of Education, called for a commitment to long-term policies to improve standards.

He said: "It is a recurring theme that predates the current administration. The root cause of it is politicians making policy as spectacle so that they are seen as being active.

"The reality is that good educational reform isn't politically sexy. It is a gradual process that builds on what we know works such as improvements in the competence of teachers."

However, a spokeswoman for Education Scotland insisted the lessons learned from the initiative would continue to be employed.

She said: "The SIPP was a three year pilot project that encouraged schools to work together across local authority boundaries to support and drive improvement. The methodology behind the SIPP was to use collaboration and enquiry to tackle educational inequality.

“Following the conclusion of that pilot project, this approach is now being taken forward as part of the £750m Scottish Attainment Challenge which has led to more schools than ever before using collaboration and enquiry to close the poverty-related attainment gap in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The findings of the three-year pilot have played an important part in our approach to closing the attainment gap.

“The results of this early work are being shared widely across the education system and continue to inform both national and local approaches to improvement as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, in particular by encouraging collaboration within the education system.

Read more: Planners back one of Scotland's biggest education developments - despite objections

“Education is our number one priority. That is why we announced in the Budget last year £120 million for schools to use at their discretion to close the attainment gap in 2017-18 - £20 million more than previously announced.”

Announcing the scheme at Glasgow University in 2013 Mr Russell described it as a nationally co-ordinated programme to partner schools which outwardly had very similar characteristics, but which performed very differently.

He said: "We want to see more links between schools with a strong track record of success, and those that have experienced difficulties and are aspiring to bring about change. Each relationship will be a long-term one."

A subsequent evaluation by the Robert Own Centre for Educational Change at Glasgow University said: "The external evaluation... and teachers’ own enquiry has provided evidence that, even at a relatively early stage of development, the SIPP is making a demonstrable impact."