There is nothing new about parents discussing their children’s education. For most of us it is almost an obsession and our conversations go round in familiar circles. But the following two insights were,

I thought, revealing, representing views from both the state and the independent sectors.

Dad No 1 sends his daughter to an Edinburgh state primary. She is almost of an age when her secondary school options must be considered. Dad was going to enrol her at the nearby state secondary but is alarmed that only one (out of 27) of last year’s 11-year-olds went there. All the rest went into private schools.

He is now asking himself what is wrong with the secondary school or, for that matter, any of the other secondary schools in the vicinity. And he is wondering whether he, too, will need to go private when the time comes.

Dad No 2 long ago abandoned all hope that the state could guarantee his son the kind of education that he had. He has been paying for the boy’s schooling for more than five years and has recently been investigating some of the top private senior schools.

When I spoke to him on Thursday he was livid. He had made a decision, he said, or rather the Scottish executive had made it for him. His son would go to an English school, as far removed as possible from devolved government’s contempt towards the private sector.

Education is full of frustrations. But there is no chance of addressing parents’ concerns in this general election because Labour in Scotland pursues its own agenda on education, as it does on health.

Tony Blair used Scotland’s failing NHS as “empirical evidence” that his reforms in England were working. He could quote comparable evidence to back his education reforms. In Scotland, where there are no city academies or foundation schools and no respect for parental choice, literacy and numeracy levels fall below England’s.

However, while we in Scotland must not allow ourselves to get excited over Blair’s manifesto promises, we have been treated to three Scottish education “initiatives” this week.

The first was the welcome intervention of the businessman and Tory party benefactor Irvine Laidlaw, who invested £40,000 in a Moray secondary school.

Lord Laidlaw had been trying to give money to Scottish schools for some time but was spurned by a suspicious education establishment. Instead, he gave £1m to a Newcastle school under Blair’s city academies scheme, saying Scotland “lacked enthusiasm” for such projects.

Now he has been allowed to make a token gesture in his home town, which shows that the executive has accepted in principle the need for private investment in education.

But his money will not free the school from council control. Nor will the gift of another Scottish millionaire, Tom Hunter, loosen the grip of the local authorities and unions. The Hunter money will, though, help head teachers improve their leadership skills.

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