Schools of Ambition is a phrase calculated to make everyone feel good, from teachers and parents to the fearful first-year pupil. It was the name chosen by the previous executive for a flagship policy designed to turn struggling schools into shining examples for others to follow. To avoid stigma, it included schools that were deemed to be failing, along with others which had achieved success in difficult circumstances and wanted to improve further.

Schools of Ambition is a phrase calculated to make everyone feel good, from teachers and parents to the fearful first-year pupil. It was the name chosen by the previous executive for a flagship policy designed to turn struggling schools into shining examples for others to follow. To avoid stigma, it included schools that were deemed to be failing, along with others which had achieved success in difficult circumstances and wanted to improve further.

The scheme now encompasses 52 secondary schools in Scotland, which receive £100,000 a year for three years, in some cases augmented by funds from philanthropists or local businesses. The money must be used for an approved programme, but the head teacher has discretion over the detail, resulting in a wide variety of new activities from African drumming to driving lessons. At Castlemilk High School in Glasgow, an increase in attendance to more than 90%, and a 20% boost in the proportion of school-leavers going on to work or further education were directly attributable to using the funds to employ attendance officers and careers advisers. It is clear that one of the most valuable aspects of the Schools of Ambition programme is that it allows schools to use the money in a way tailored to their particular circumstances. St Ninian's High School in Kirkintilloch, for example, puts it into visits abroad for modern languages pupils.

While it would be desirable for every school to offer that opportunity, the first step, as at Castlemilk, must be getting pupils to attend school in the first place. The SNP government has decided to wind up the scheme at the end of the present commitment. All schools should be equally ambitious, but the view that unless all can be funded none should benefit is dangerously negative. Despite wide support for comprehensive education in Scotland, not all schools are equal and the philosophy behind Schools of Ambition was to tackle the intractable problem of the high levels of pupils in some areas who do not move into employment, education or training. Exchanging Schools of Ambition for smaller class sizes in P1-P3 will not help the teenagers about to fall into that void. In some Glasgow schools, funding was matched by the Hunter Foundation, set up by the businessman Sir Tom Hunter, who was particularly keen for the system to fit the child rather than the child to fit the system.

That approach should not be lost with the Schools of Ambition programme; nor should the idea of boosting the education budget with donations from charities and businesses. Those cannot have strings attached, but schools that are ambitious for their pupils are often the most positive force in deprived areas. They do not have the fund-raising ability of wealthier suburbs, but can have a transformative effect on their pupils. Schools of Ambition has cost £15m over three years; spread over every school in Scotland, as the SNP would wish, it is too little to make a significant difference. Where is the SNP's ambition for the children who need it most?