The Scottish executive has announced the expansion of its £2.2 billion school building programme.

Education minister Peter Peacock announced on Tuesday that four additional councils would join the 24 which are already making use of the public private partnership (PPP).

The four new members - Falkirk, Moray, Scottish Borders and West Dunbartonshire - are set to share around £270 million of PPP investment.

It was also announced that a further £1.5 million will be allocated to councils to help them to continue developing their school estate management plans, which were drawn up last year.

Additional guidance to help councils manage the PPP process is also being published by the executive.

"Throughout Scotland, many communities are seeing the real benefits of our school buildings programme," said Peacock.

"Gone are the crumbling classrooms and out-of-date equipment. Instead, our pupils and teachers have schools fit for the 21st century, equipped to meet modern needs and challenges."

The minister hailed the investment as "the biggest school buildings programme in Scotland's history", leading to the rebuilding or refurbishment of 300 schools by 2009.

Alternatives

But the SNP called for a further examination of the alternatives to PPPs in schools.

Shadow education minister Fiona Hyslop said there was no evidence that the "discredited PPP programme" delivers value for money.

"We have the minister telling us that it is providing schools equipped for the 21st century, equipped to meet modern needs and challenges but it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not the case," she said.

Hyslop said that new PPP schools "suffered poor planning and shoddy workmanship and often had leaking roofs, narrow corridors, cramped classrooms and playgrounds, inadequate insulation and poor water supplies".

"There are alternatives to privatisation, one of which is the SNP idea of a not-for-profit trust which the executive has partially adopted at the request of some councils, like Falkirk, and they should be thinking about taking the project the whole way," she added.

The SNP also called for a change to the model schools PPP contract to ensure that "decent PE facilities and out of hours access for community use are built in".