Figures released this week show that the percentage of primary 7 pupils going to independent schools has fallen from 4 per cent in 1996 to 1.4 per cent this year. There is also a “steady drift” of pupils returning to state secondaries.

East Renfrewshire has built a reputation as a pace-setter in exam performance in the state sector. This year’s national results confirm it has strengthened its place at the top of the league tables.

A spokesman said: “We are in friendly competition with the private sector. It could be that, as private education becomes more expensive, people are opting to buy houses in East Renfrewshire instead.”

Professor Lindsay Paterson of Edinburgh University has recently stirred the debate between the state and independent sectors by suggesting that children of middle-class, educated parents could do almost as well academically by taking Highers at the local comprehensive as they could in inde-pendent schools.

Alan McGinlay, headteacher of Mearns Castle High, where 11 pupils in the fifth and sixth years started in the independent sector, believes greater choice in the upper secondary is one of the reasons for the drift.

“Parents see that we are offering a good range of courses, including drama and media studies at Higher and Advanced Higher levels and maybe they see that state education is delivering the goods,” Mr McGinlay said.

Jim McVittie, head of St Ninian’s High, reports a “fairly steady” inflow of pupils from the independent sector. Eight started S6 in August. “We get them coming in at different stages from various schools. There is an awareness among parents that young people of ability will achieve in the state sector if parents have confidence in their local school and support it,” Mr McVittie said.

East Renfrewshire heads this year’s exam performance table in three categories and Mearns Castle, St Ninian’s and Williamwood are in the top seven local authority schools in Scotland for pupils gaining five or more Credit level passes at Standard grade. Fifty-nine per cent of the authority’s S4 candidates achieved that level.

Forty-one per cent took three or more Highers at A-C grade in S5 against a national average of 22 per cent. Twenty-two per cent passed five or more Highers in S5 against the national average of 9 per cent.

East Renfrewshire’s own statistics indicate significant increases over the past seven years in passes in all subjects but especially in modern languages.

At Standard grade there has been a 28 per cent rise in pupils achieving five or more Credit awards and an overall increase of 26 per cent in Credit passes.

At Higher, there has been a 24 per cent rise in students passing three or more subjects at A-C grades and a 57 per cent rise in students gaining five or more passes.

A breakdown of the 51 per cent increase in Higher passes at A-C grades shows that there have been rises of 3 per cent in English, 12 per cent in mathematics and 50 per cent in modern languages.