FIRST Minister Alex Salmond visited the new Carnegie Primary in Dunfermline and told pupils, "It's the best school in Scotland".

Mr Salmond said he was very impressed by facilities at the eco-friendly school and also the knowledge of the youngsters during his visit yesterday (Wednesday).

After visiting the classrooms, the First Minister took a lesson with all pupils in the assembly hall at which he asked if they knew who Andrew Carnegie was.

The answers ranged from "he was named after our school" to "he was a philanthropist".

Mr Salmond said afterwards, "The girl who said that is in Primary 3 and I thought that was incredible and good credit to Mrs Marnoch (headteacher) and her staff. I don't know if I knew what a philanthropist was when I was in Primary 3.

"It was a good sign because I wanted to see what they knew about the person the school's named after and the answer was a very great deal.

"This is a Fife Council-funded capital borrowing project and they deserve every congratulations for doing this.

"We've managed overall between ourselves and the councils, especially the ones like Fife who are building, to open 330 schools in the last four years which is a record.

"Scotland's never managed that number and if we can only ensure they are all built to this standard it would be fantastic." The new school, situated near Carnegie College, opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday. It has 210 pupils and 95 youngsters at nursery. There are four Primary 1 classes.