Old prejudices and conceits must go to let children head for genuine attainment

It is said that the mistake of older generals is that they wish to fight old battles again rather than learn and adapt to new circumstances.

Now, as the fog of past political wars clears, a new sort of power struggle is becoming visible in the Scottish Parliament. A debate between the harbingers of modest incremental change and the reaction-ary forces of resistance is playing out that will be a skirmish in the UK general election but is likely to be a full-blown battle at the Scottish Parliament elections next year; and the terrain they are fighting on is education.

The old prejudices – firstly, that "everyone hates the Tories" and secondly, "wha's like us, we don't need to learn fae others" – are being exposed for what they always were: conceited, bloody-minded ignorance.

A strange thing is happening that illustrates the melting of such a myopic and mendacious mood; in the issue of school education the Conservatives – ably led by Elizabeth Smith, a younger model of Annabel Goldie but with ambition – are making inroads, making friends and influencing people.

Just a few weeks ago the release of official statistics that revealed that more than two-thirds of Scottish secondary schoolchildren do not enjoy the expected standards of literacy for pupils of their age rent asunder the complacent defenders of the nation's uniform comprehensive education. These results came fast on the heels of the latest international studies that showed English education was achieving better attainment levels than Scotland.

Taking advantage of the disarray of their opponents after such an evidence-based pounding, the Conservatives have unveiled their new education policy of learning from other countries, such as Sweden, and allowing parents, philanthropists and charities to establish new state-funded free schools that cannot be selective but would be independent of local authorities.

Parachuting in over the melee, East Lothian Council has been suggesting it devolves the management of its schools to an independent trust. Education is becoming a big issue again and the defenders of the failed social engineering of the Sixties are, like old generals, still fighting the battles of the past.

Now everyone is looking out their passports to visit Sweden, Finland and other exotic lands to see how others do it – and do it better. Scenting that the defeat of Labour's citadel is in the air, the SNP, led by the impressionable General Russell, and aped by the Liberal Democrats' Brigadier Scott, are touring Scandinavia to learn the moves. They need not have gone that far; a day trip to Jordanhill School, regularly Scotland's top-performing state school, would have told them a similar story.

Scottish socialists don't like to talk about Jordanhill. For a start, it was saved from closure and reborn as Scotland's only direct grant school by the personal intervention of Margaret Thatcher; more troublesome is that fact that it exposes the lie that only local authorities know how to run schools. Neither of these two prejudices is, of course, enough to prevent socialist politicians sending their children there.

The point that the Conservatives have been trying to make is that there is nothing to fear from allowing (not forcing) more competition within the state schools as the evidence shows that the existing schools near them respond to the challenge by raising standards.

In 2002 I visited Denmark to see its educational improvements, and in 2005 David McLetchie and I went to Sweden to learn of its reforms. The core message from these visits, and the study of lands such as New Zealand and Holland, was that inter-school competition for the honour of educating children raised the general standards across all schools.

The evidence in the early years of the Scottish Parliament said all was not well with our education system, with 3,000 pupils leaving school every year without any qualification to show for 12 years of "study". The "wha's like us" mentality was still in the driving seat and ironically the brave and radical reforms introduced by Tony Blair's English education secretaries were halted at the Border by devolution.

Wiser counsel has now prevailed, with respected academics such as Professor Lindsay Paterson, supported by mercenary forces such as Re-form Scotland, pointing out that England's attainment levels have improved to the point of overtaking Scotland's . It didn't matter which of the three Labour First Ministers or the four Labour education ministers was in charge, the only prevailing policy was to raise the level of public spending. After doubling it and seeing that most children still couldn't read competently, the Labour generals are now on the retreat.

What we are seeing here is an opening of minds and the possible development of a new consensus about how education might be run in Scotland – just what coalition politics is meant to achieve.

For the sake of Scotland's children, it cannot happen too soon.

Brian Monteith is policy director of ThinkScotland.org