Councillor Keenan had accused his SNP counterpart of having a “short memory,” and said their efforts to improve education would not be thwarted by those “intent on making a political game out of it”.

However, Councillor FitzPatrick denied he was trying to make political capital out of the poor performance of Dundee schools in exam tables.

“Our intention in calling this meeting was to try to take Dundee’s educational attainment forward,” he said.

“We will not find a magic answer in the 30 or so minutes the special meeting is likely to last, but we are hoping for a constructive meeting so we can begin the process of turning around Dundee’s disappointing results.

“Little progress is likely to be made, however, until the administration and their allies accept there is a problem.”

The SNP group forced the special meeting after all 11 Nationalist councillors put their names to a letter following the publication of shock statistics last month.

They showed Dundee’s secondary schools have the second-worst record in Scotland for pupils achieving the main awards in Standard Grades and Highers.

Less than a quarter of S4 pupils gained credit awards in five or more Standard Grades, and the proportion of S5 pupils gaining three or more Highers dropped to 14%.

Councillor FitzPatrick said the SNP first raised the issue in December, but discovered it wasn’t on the agenda for the education meeting this month.

Furthermore, they believe the report that was expected to be brought forward was “not going to deal with the real problem, just give more excuses”.

Councillor Keenan insisted yesterday that the administration had always made education a priority, and added that “attainment is more than about passing exams”.

He said, “Although we acknowledge that exam success is important, we also recognise that not all young people will leave school, no matter where they are educated, with a clutch of certificates.”

The meeting is tomorrow in City Chambers at 2pm.