Guest Column: Geoff Mawdsley, director of Reform Scotland

THERE are undoubtedly many very good state schools in Scotland, providing high-quality education. However, the performance of our system in comparative international studies of educational attainment is, at best, mixed and leaves plenty of room for improvement.

The most recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study placed Scotland 26th and below England, while the latest Trends in International Maths and Science Survey showed Scotland was below average for both Primary 5 and Secondary 2 pupils in maths, and roughly average for both age groups in science.

There is compelling evidence from other countries that competition can help to raise overall educational standards. This was confirmed by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study, which found that "across countries, having a larger number of schools that compete for students is associated with better results, over and above the relationship with student background".

Some schools perform better than would be expected given the high level of pupils receiving free school meals. This shows it is not that children from deprived backgrounds are less able than their wealthier counterparts; they are falling through the gaps because the educational environment available is not helping them to fulfil their potential.

Taking all this into account, our proposals to improve Scottish education have two related elements.

The first is that, as in a number of other countries, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, parents should be given greater power to choose where their children are educated. We think this is best achieved by giving parents an entitlement equal to the value of the average cost of educating a child in their local authority area.

This would give parents a greater say in choosing the school they believe will help their child to fulfil his or her potential. This could be the local state school, a state school on the other side of town, or an independent school if its fees were the same as, or less than, the value of the entitlement.

If an independent school's fees were higher than the value of the entitlement, parents would not be able to top up the difference themselves.

The second part of our proposals is that there is a need to set up new and more diverse schools to provide the competition that the OECD's study highlighted as being the key driver of improved standards. Of course, there is nothing to prevent new independent schools being set up at present.

However, giving parents the entitlement would provide the essential stimulus for the establishment of new, independent, state-funded schools where there is a demand for them.

Our research shows that there is an urgent need for reforms which help those who are being let down by the current system – the most disadvantaged in our society. We propose that the entitlement scheme should run for two years solely for parents of children on free school meals. After two years, the scheme would be extended to all parents.

However, we think that pupils in receipt of free school meals or with special needs should receive a permanent supplement on top of their entitlement, and this would be paid by central government. This would ensure that such pupils are more attractive to schools, so helping to achieve the objective of extending opportunity and social mobility.

• Geoff Mawdsley is director of Reform Scotland. A copy of Parent Power can be downloaded from www.reformscotland.com