Figures revealed secondary schools in Dumbarton and the Vale have a lower percentage of leavers going into a positive destination – further or higher education, employment, training, volunteering or activity agreements – than those in Clydebank.

The local authority’s education chief Terry Lanagan has said the downturn is ‘disappointing’and staff are looking in the reasons behind it and the ‘significant discrepancy’ between high schools in the two areas.

Our Lady and St Patrick’s saw a seven per cent drop in pupils going on to a positive destinations, to 88.8 per cent in 2013/14 compared with 95.8 the previous year.

Vale of Leven Academy also dropped from 86.4 per cent to 85.5 per cent and Dumbarton Academy fell from 90.3 to 89.8.

Meanwhile, St Peter’s high school in Clydebank saw an increase in positive destinations from 88.8 per cent to 92.5 while Clydebank High School fell from 93.3 to 92.1.

Across West Dunbartonshire overall school leavers going on to positive destinations has fallen 0.8 per cent from 90.9 per cent in 2012/13 to 90.1 per cent in 2013/14.

This is despite an increase in the levels of pupils going on to both higher and further education and employment by 1.6 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.

The number of school leavers in training fell by 5.9 per cent and those reporting as unemployed increased by 0.6 per cent to 8.8 per cent.

This leaves the region second bottom in a league table of positive destinations for school leavers ranked by council areas in Scotland, ahead of Glasgow.

A report by the council’s education chief, Terry Lanagan, set to go before the educational services committee next week points out that during the last nine years young people in positive destinations has increased by 7.1 per cent from its low of 83 per cent in 2005/06 to 90.1 per cent in 2013/14.

Mr Lanagan said: “Following three years in which West Dunbartonshire’s leaver destination figures were significantly better than the national average, the figures for the last two years are below the national average, with West Dunbartonshire 31st out of 32 local authorities for positive destinations in 2013/14.

“This is a disappointing downturn and the reasons for it require further analysis, which is currently being undertaken.

“There is a significant discrepancy between figures for Clydebank schools and the schools in Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven.

“St Peter the Apostle High School performed better than the national average in 2013/14 with Clydebank High only marginally below the national average.

“Figures for the other three schools are well below the national figure.

“Again, analysis of the reasons for this discrepancy is being undertaken.” The report adds: “Failure to achieve high levels of positive post school destinations represents a significant risk to the future life chances of our young people.

“The council also faces challenges in ensuring positive destinations are sustained over a longer period of time.” Councillor Michelle McGinty, the council’s education spokeswoman, told the Reporter: “Obviously we are disappointed that it is down a bit, but we also need to face reality.

“This report being more factual than previous reports gives us a better insight than we held previously.

“We’re providing more sustainable outcomes rather than positive outcomes for a short period of time.” She said previously the council had had 100 per cent positive outcomes but this had being criticised over whether it was an accurate reflection of the situation rather than a snapshot in time when many children could be on short term placements or college courses.

She said: “What we’re getting now is a more detailed picture of what’s going on which will allow us to provide resources where we are not getting it right.” She added that the reduction in pupils going to into training was balanced out by an increase in pupils staying on at school to get highers to help them in their careers, helped by the support of the educational maintenance allowance.