The SNP has promised a free school bag filled with “essential school items” to every P1 if the they win May’s election.

John Swinney said the “Welcome to School Bag” would build on the “fantastic success” of the Baby Box.

The Tories dismissed it as a “goodie-bag gimmick” and “cynical stunt” to distract from “plummeting school standards”.

Labour and the Lib Dems compared the pledge to the SNP’s previous manifesto promises to give every pupil in Scotland a tablet or a PC, and to provide free bikes to schoolchildren who could not afford them.

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The school bag vow will form part of the party’s manifesto, due to be published on Thursday.

The SNP said the it would be provided to all Primary 1 pupils, and come with a starter pack which includes stationery, books, a water bottle and “resources to help families encourage literacy and numeracy practice at home”.

The First Minister said: “I am delighted to launch our fantastic new Welcome to School Bag today. Starting school is an exciting moment for every child and their family and I am determined that we do everything we can to support them at such a big transition point in their life.

“The Welcome to School Bag will be packed with items – stationery, books and other helpful resources to help our children thrive when starting school.

“Building on the fantastic success of the Baby Box, Scotland’s Welcome to School Bag is just another step in ensuring that we are supporting our children at every stage of their life.”

More than 360,000 baby boxes have been given out to Scottish parents since the launch of the scheme in 2017.

Every new mother is entitled to the box, which is delivered a few weeks before her due date, and includes items such as books, clothes and a digital thermometer, while the box itself can be used as a sleeping space.

While popular and well-known policy, there have been questions over whether spending around £8–9m a year, roughly £160 per box, is the best use of constrained public funds, especially as the universal nature of the box means it goes to families who can easily afford its contents.

The SNP has not said how much the Welcome to School Bag will cost.

Mr Swinney said: “The Baby Box has been transformational for so many families across the country and receiving it is now an important milestone for new parents. The Welcome to School Bag has the potential to have the same impact.

“That is what you get with the SNP – a government that is always on Scotland’s side.”

Paul O’Kane, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, said the SNP had a “long list of broken promises when it comes to supporting schools and young people”.

He said: “At the 2021 election, they committed to giving free laptops to all school pupils in Scotland, but this pledge has since been ditched.

“They promised to expand free school meals to all primary school pupils but have failed to deliver.

“They insisted they would provide free bikes for all schoolkids who can’t afford them but have fallen woefully short on this ambition.

“And they vowed to eliminate the attainment gap, yet the gap between the richest and poorest pupils in our schools is wider than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Amid their trail of broken promises, there has been a rise in the number of kids skipping school and families can’t get the support they need.”

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Scottish Lib Dem education spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “The SNP love to announce freebies at election time and then ditch them the moment polling day has passed.

“Last election it was bikes and tablets, this time it’s school bags.”

Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs said: “Scotland’s once-proud reputation for educational excellence lies in tatters after two decades of SNP government, and John Swinney’s big solution is a goodie-bag gimmick for primary one pupils.

“Swinney should be addressing plummeting school standards, the epidemic of classroom violence, the poverty-related attainment gap he promised to eradicate and the shortage of teachers.”

The inclusion of a free water bottle for every pupil marks something of a victory for 12-year old Calum Isted, who became the Scottish Parliament’s youngest known petitioner in 2021.

After launching a campaign to stop his school handing out single‑use plastic water bottles with Friday packed lunches, he walked the entire 134‑mile John Muir Way in stages and raised more than £1,400, enough to buy high‑quality steel bottles – plus spare lids – for every pupil at Dedridge Primary in Livingston.

Once his school switched away from disposables, he turned to Holyrood, lodging a petition and asking MSPs to urge the government to provide a reusable bottle for every primary pupil in Scotland.

He was invited to give evidence to the Public Petitions and won praise from MSPs and then first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

However, while supportive, the government stopped short of backing a national scheme. Instead, they said schools already had a duty to provide free drinking water and many councils are already encouraging pupils to bring reusable bottles.