INVESTMENT in education is needed to close the attainment gap between rich and poor children according to a Labour leadership hopeful.

Kezia Dugdale said she wants to see more teachers and a reformed inspection system to improve leadership and results.

Ms Dugdale targeted education as a priority policy area in a speech with just days to go before voting closes in the Scottish Labour leadership election.

Ms Dugdale is standing against East Renfrewshire MSP Ken Macintosh with voting closing on Friday and the new leader announced the following day.

The daughter of two teachers outlined the gap between children from the most deprived communities and those form the least deprived and said it “infuriates” her.

She said: “It remains the case today that your educational outcomes depend more on your parents’ income that any other factor - be that talent, hard work or indeed the school you go to.

When it comes to basic skills, that attainment gap is stark.”

She said in reading 93% of better off primary 7 children were ‘performing well’ compared to 81% from the least well off.

For writing, she said the gap was 77% to 56% and for numeracy the figure was 77% least deprived doing well compared to 53% in the most deprived areas.

Ms Dugdale: “It infuriates me knowing that every improvement in Scottish educational history has been driven by the desire to increase equality and opportunity - from universal schooling to the expansion of university education - yet we still have thousands of young Scots who do not really have a chance.”

She called for a new Enhanced Teacher Grade to “raise the skills levels and the rewards for those teaching in the most challenging classrooms”.

Ms Dugdale said schools must be judged properly against new standards.

She called for a moratorium on school inspections for a year for a redesign of the inspection programme to be carried out.”