The first Scottish exam results league tables for two years have been published - with an Executive warning that the results do not give the full picture of school performance.

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The Scottish National Party's education spokesman Mike Russell said the league tables were divisive and the Tories warned the new education minister against complacency.

Education Minister Cathy Jamieson welcomed the continuing improvement in examination attainment in many schools.

She said examination results were an important indicator, but they were just one way of measuring school performance.

Brian Monteith: "Complacency" warning

She said results should be considered alongside other indicators of pupils' progress, such as the quality of the learning experience and the ethos of the school.

"Our national priorities for education, linked to local improvement plans and school development plans, provide the Scottish education system with a common framework to drive forward continuous improvement," said Ms Jamieson.

"Such a focused framework - together with information on exam attainment - will give parents a clear picture of how their children's school is performing in the areas that really matter."

Mr Russell said: "The government policy of league tables is pitting school against school and child against child, when the priority should be the educational welfare of our children."

Scottish Tory education spokesman Brian Monteith welcomed the improving results.

Hardline Socialist

He said the improvements were due to measures put in place by the previous Conservative government and warned the new education minister against complacency.

He said Ms Jamieson's appointment was a great worry for Scotland's pupils, parents and teachers.

"Cathy's reputation as a dogmatic, red-blooded, hard-line Socialist suggests further necessary reforms to our education system will go unmade," he said.

Judith Gillespie, development manager of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: "Despite government intentions that they be put in context and that exam results are not the single judge of a school, that is how they are used."

The government policy of league tables is pitting school against school and child against child, when the priority should be the educational welfare of our children.

SNP Education spokesman Mike Russell

Ms Gillespie said the league tables were a "crude measure of success".

She said that it was children and not schools that got exam results and poor figures for a school led to a "bleeding out" of good pupils to other schools.

She added that the figures made for an unreliable comparison with previous years because they had been distorted by a change in the exam structure.

She said: "It is a different style of exam and so it is not totally comparable with what happened before 2000."