Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP have presided over "10 years of failure" in Scotland's schools, Tory leader Ruth Davidson claimed as she criticised the SNP's record on education.

A decade after the SNP won the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Ms Davidson said the nationalists have left a "10-year record of failure" which meant "our schools can no longer be classed as world-leading".

She pressed the First Minister on falling teacher numbers and a decline in numeracy and science.

Ms Davidson said: "Tomorrow we elect the councillors whose job will be to support our schools on the ground and the SNP says education is their top priority, but doesn't their 10 years of failure tell an entirely different story?"

Ms Sturgeon responded by saying Ms Davidson's party had not mentioned education in its leaflets for the local authority elections taking place on Thursday.

While councils have the responsibility for providing education, the SNP leader insisted "improvements are being made" as she highlighted a £120 million funding pot which is going directly to headteachers to help close the attainment gap.

During the clash at First Minister's Questions, Ms Sturgeon held up a Conservative election leaflet, which she said had been put through her letterbox, and stated: "This leaflet mentions me, or the SNP, or independence, a grand total of 43 times.

"It mentions Ruth Davidson or the Tories just nine times, one of those is her signature. It mentions her policies on education zero times.

"In this election, they haven't put forward a single policy on our schools, on social care, on roads, on transport, on anything. They have a constitutional obsession."

Ms Davidson accused the Scottish Government of having "delayed and delayed again" a review of school governance ordered by Education Secretary John Swinney.

The Tory leader claimed councils in the north-east and the Highlands were seeking "more flexibility" to tackle the "crisis" in schools, but said they were having to wait to act.

She added: "It's a problem of the SNP's making, council's are saying 'let us fix this now', and an Education Secretary saying 'no, let me chew on this some more'."

The number of P4 and P7 children doing well at numeracy fell between 2011 and 2015, Ms Davidson said.

She also told MSPs the Sutton Trust education think tank had highlighted a "pronounced and sustained" decline in how well pupils are doing at science under the SNP, claiming this was "around the equivalent to an entire year of schooling".

Moving on to teacher numbers, she said there were 4,000 fewer staff in classrooms now than there were in 2007, adding that 16% of training places for English teachers and more than a quarter of training places for maths teachers are vacant.

Ms Davidson said: "Jam tomorrow just doesn't cut it because with this SNP government it's not just one statistic or two or three, it is a 10-year record of failure."

Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would "shortly" announce what recommendations it is taking forward from the review of school governance.

She claimed opposition leaders would criticise SNP ministers, regardless of what changes are made.

The First Minister said: "One of the things that is certain, if past experience is anything to go by, as soon as we do set out the direction of travel over the governance review the other parties in this chamber who have been calling on us to do it for months will suddenly decide that they oppose everything we decide to do. I would absolutely lay bets on that."

She added: "What we see in this chamber, time and time again, are opposition parties calling for things to be done, and as soon as they are done they decide to oppose them."

She stressed the governance review is "one part of a wider package of reform" taking place in Scotland, with the Government also bringing in its £120 million attainment fund, a new national improvement framework and standardised testing.

Ms Sturgeon said: "While I don't dismiss any of the statistics Ruth Davidson cites, I think she does a disservice to young people and teachers across the country, because as we have set out before we now see record numbers of Higher and Advanced Higher passes in our schools.

"We also see record numbers of positive destinations, that is more young people going into employment, further education or training than has ever been the case before.

"We are seeing far fewer pupils now from our deprived communities leaving school with no qualifications and we're also starting to see, although I want this to go much further, we're starting to see a narrowing of the gap between the least and most deprived areas in terms of access to university.

"So, we'll get on with investing the money, with conducting the reforms, with supporting teachers and headteachers to make sure we see continued improvements for young people right across the country."