North and north-east councils have not received a single penny from a flagship Scottish Government fund to help the poorest students.
Shock new figures show that Aberdeenshire, Moray, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles have received no support from a cash pot designed to help close the attainment.
They were among almost a dozen councils that received no money from the SNP administration’s Attainment Challenge Fund – a situation Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said would lead to a “postcode lottery” in education.
The Scottish Government last night insisted closing the attainment gap was a “key priority”.
But Ms Dugdale, speaking on a visit to Newcastle, said: “I want every young person to get the best possible start in life. That means cutting the gap between the richest and the rest in our classrooms but right now it is a postcode lottery.
“More than 1,500 schools in Scotland get no extra support from the SNP Government to cut the attainment gap, and neither do one third of our councils.
“Nicola Sturgeon said education would be her number one priority – but in parts of the country she is doing nothing to help.
“After nearly a decade in power and a majority in parliament there are no excuses for the SNP not to be using the new powers coming to Scotland to build a fairer future for our young people.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said “removing the barriers preventing our children realise their potential remains our key priority”.
She added: “Early literacy and numeracy are being improved by the Read, Write, Count campaign which ensures every child in primary one to three has access to a library of books and educational materials with our national and local numeracy hubs and Making Maths Count programme building on this for children of school age.
“Our commitment to closing the attainment gap has seen the number of young people from the most deprived communities leaving school with no qualifications at level 3 or better drop significantly.”