Local authorities are spurning the Scottish government's attempts to raise standards by introducing a new baccalaureate exam which would test the most able pupils in science and modern languages, a survey by The Times has shown.

Just 22 schools out of 376 will offer the baccalaureate after the summer, prompting unions leaders to give warning of a two-tier system which will disadvantage pupils from less well off areas. One official branded it “the baccalaureate for the leafy suburbs”.

The development is a fresh blow to the SNP government's beleaguered education record. It is already failing on several key manifesto pledges, including reducing primary class sizes and maintaining teacher numbers.

Opposition politicians yesterday said that Fiona Hyslop, the Education Secretary, had been left with “a lot of problems to address”.

Unions have not objected to the new exam , but are unhappy about its “ad-hoc” adoption and said that head teachers had not been given enough time or resources to prepare for it.

In Glasgow, Scotland's largest local authority area, the city council plans to offer the qualification in only one of its 29 schools. The baccalaureate will not be available at all in the north-east, with Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils rejecting it.

Orkney, Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Perth and Kinross and South Lanarkshire councils will not be offering the exam in any of their schools. Only Clackmannanshire is considering it for all its three schools - but is looking at the science element alone.

Jim Docherty, acting general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association, told The Times: “This new exam is going to be the baccalaureate for the leafy suburbs.

“It is only the schools where there are large numbers of students looking to take the subjects that we will find the classes will be viable. It will become a form of two-tier provision.”

Ken Cunningham, general secretary of the School Leaders Scotland union, which represents head teachers, also said there was a fear that a two-tier system could be established.

“There is a concern that it could become a postcode lottery. With public schools, it will depend on the resources they have got to deliver it. At this point in time it is difficult to see how it will be developed,” he added.

The qualification was drawn up amid concerns too many pupils were getting the highest grades and it was impossible to distinguish between them. The Scottish government held it up as an alternative to the prestigious International Baccalaureate and said it would improve employment prospects for students.

The qualification requires pupils to study a combination of Highers and Advanced Highers and complete an inter-disciplinary project. It therefore requires those classes to be taught in schools at a time when they are reportedly being dropped because of issues over funding.

It is also unclear how baccalaureates will be rated by university admissions departments. Ucas, the body which determines the points allocated to each qualification, may not decide until as late as September - after the school year has started.

Mr Cunningham said that the weight which universities would place on the exam would partly determine how widely adopted the baccalaureate became.

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents the principals of Scotland's 20 higher education institutuions, said that it was “broadly supportive” of the new exam and was working with government to establish the implications for universities.

Liz Smith, the Scottish Tories education spokeswoman, said she believed that Ms Hyslop had “quite a lot of problems to address”.

However, the Scottish government said that it had received “notes of interest” from more than 100 schools and colleges looking to introduce the baccalaureate from next year.

A spokesman said it was anticipated that a small number of pupils would initially be eligible and the reason for introducing the exam was to encourage more schools to offer science and language courses at the top level.

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