NICOLA Sturgeon has signalled her willingness to take on teaching unions and university chiefs in her drive to eradicate the attainment gap between children from rich and poor families.

Speaking at her manifesto launch, the First Minister said that she was prepared to "challenge" universities to do more to widen access to those from deprived backgrounds and admitted that the reforms she will force through, if re-elected, would prove "controversial".

The SNP leader is committed to implementing the recommendations of an expert panel that suggested those from deprived backgrounds should be offered lower university entry requirements than the well off, a move that is likely to mean fewer places for those from wealthy families and the privately educated and encounter fierce resistance from sections of society.

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She said that that a pupil from a poorer household obtaining four B grades may be equivalent to a child from a rich family achieving straight As.

Ms Sturgeon is also planning to bypass local authorities and direct £100m a year in additional cash straight to headteachers, with the manifesto stating that the SNP will establish more "school clusters", decentralise management and ensure more frequent inspections, alongside a new pupil testing regime.

She said she was "very clear" that targets would be set for universities, which are traditionally nervous about government interference, adding: "Some [recommendations] are about recognising the different experiences of pupils from our most disadvantaged backgrounds and making sure they are taken into account. Young people getting perhaps four or five Bs in their exams, from a deprived background, might be equivalent to a person from a wealthier background getting all As. We've got to challenge our universities and some of that will be controversial along the way."

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On schools, she said she was not proposing English-style academies, which see schools taken out of local authority control entirely, but will advocate a new approach to "better empower" teachers, parents and communities to drive improvements and offer more freedom.

Ms Sturgeon added: "I am serious, very, very serious, about my determination to make sure our schools are once again among the best in the world. That will sometimes mean thinking things that we didn't previously think we would do."

A commitment to maintaining 1,000 extra police officers, meaning frontline numbers must be kept at a minimum of at least 17,254, appeared to have been ditched with the manifesto stating that the force needed to change to adapt to the changing nature of crime. The First Minister said she would allow a "degree of flexibility" to hire more specialist staff.

The SNP, which polls predict will be returned to Government with an increased majority on May 5, is proposing a new Bill on climate change, which will increase a target to reduce emissions by 42 per cent by 2020 to 50 per cent, from a baseline set in 1990.

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The manifesto states that the SNP is "deeply sceptical" of fracking, saying that it will only be allowed should a research program prove "beyond any doubt" that the gas extraction technique does not pose a risk to public health or the environment. The creation of a Government-owned energy company, tasked with assisting local and community energy projects, will be explored.

Ms Sturgeon will stick with her proposals on taxation, keeping the council tax but increasing bills for those in more expensive homes and ending an eight-year freeze. On income tax, the basic rate and additional rate will be frozen with a tax cut for higher rate taxpayers passed on only in part, with the threshold rising in line with inflation.

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, claimed the SNP document was a "manifesto for cuts", saying there were no measures put forward by the First Minister that would stop austerity imposed by the UK Government.

She added: "Last year Nicola Sturgeon campaigned on a manifesto that promised to increase taxes on the richest one per cent earning more than £150,000 a year to stop the cuts and invest in our public services. Just twelve months on today’s SNP manifesto offers nothing but Tory excuses for failing to use the new powers of the Scottish Parliament so we can end austerity in Scotland.

"The central issue in this election is how we use the new powers to stop the cuts to schools and other vital local services. The Scottish Parliament doesn’t have to be a conveyor belt for Tory austerity, but that requires bold political choices. With her manifesto today Nicola Sturgeon has ducked the difficult decisions."