WORKING class Scots have lost the hunger for education as a way of transforming their lives, according to a leading official.

Liz Cameron, Glasgow City Council's new executive member for education, said passion for school was now more in evidence amongst migrants families.

Her comments come after a recent Glasgow University study found migrants were often high achievers and had improved school statistics, particularly in more impoverished areas.

It concluded: "Crucially, the positive changes in attitudes were seen as having been driven by migrant children themselves through their own motivation."

In an interview with The Herald, Mrs Cameron said that when she was growing up in Partick she was surrounded by families like her own who thought education was vital to their future prospects.

Her father left school when he was 14, but was determined his daughter would have every educational opportunity – an attitude passed down from Mrs Cameron's grandparents.

She said: “When I was growing up, education was prized in working class communities as something that would change children’s lives and when I look at the young people who come to us from Africa or Syria or Iraq you can see they have that same passion.

“These are children who might come from families where they haven’t been educated, but they will make their children go to school even if they have to walk for miles.

“Teachers in our schools say the more migrant children we have the more we see it is having a positive impact because they are really into learning and they prize it and I want to get to a position where all our children and, hugely importantly, their parents, are involved. I think to a certain extent we have lost that passion in Scotland.”

Mrs Cameron was caught up in a row last week over her suggestion to a pupil that the independent St Aloysius school was one of the best the city.

She said her comments had been taken out of context, but is not repentant about giving praise to the private sector, which already works in partnership with state schools in some parts of the city.

She would also like to see opportunities for private sponsorship of state schools in the same way that former pupils give to private schools.

“We would love some of the resources that schools in the private sector have.We have never faced financial restraints like we will over the next two years and we have to find ways of doing things as well as we do, but within a more constrained budget,” she said.

“We have to ask whether we are willing to work with partners and maybe we will find someone who wants to sponsor a particular project or piece of equipment related to the world of business or science and technology.

“We would never have refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery without an appeal and sponsorship, but it was still a public sector operation.

“What I am wondering is what opportunities there are for people who have really made it in the world who have gone through the state sector and who want to put something back."