Attainment in Scottish schools improves but poverty gap remains high

Attainment in Scotland’s schools in literacy and numeracy has improved, but the poverty-related gap continues to be high and has even increased in some areas, figures show.

The Scottish Government published figures on Tuesday assessing levels of achievement in primary schools – by looking at pupils in Primary 1, 4 and 7 combined, as well as those in S3.

For primary pupils, the percentage achieving the expected level in numeracy was 79.6% in 2022-23, up from 77.9% the previous year, and an increase from 79.1% compared to 2018-19 – the year before the pandemic.

For S3 pupils, the figure was 89.6%, up from 89.1% the year before but still down from 90.2% from before Covid-19.

Literacy attainment was far lower than numeracy in both categories, the figures showed, with 72.7% of primary school pupils achieving the expected level, a rise from 70.5% the previous year and from 72.3% before the pandemic.

In S3 87.8% achieved the expected level, up from 85.5% last year but down by 0.1% compared to before the pandemic.

Despite the improvements from the previous year, the attainment gap remained stubbornly high and even increased in some areas.

In 2022-23, the gap between primary pupils in literacy in the richest and poorest areas of Scotland was 20.5 percentage points, down from 21.3 points the previous year and 20.7 in 2018-19.

For secondary pupils, the gap was smaller – 13.7 points in the most recent year, down from 16.3 the previous year and 13.8 points in 2018-19.

In numeracy, the gap increased over the past five years, with primary pupils seeing a slight jump from 16.8 percentage points to 17, despite a drop of 0.8 points in the most recent year.

In S3 pupils, the figure rose from 13.5 points to 13.6, while there was a drop from 15 points in 2021-22.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “These figures show record levels of attainment across primary school level and significant improvements in secondary. I congratulate our pupils and teachers for their hard work over the last year.

“These findings are the most up-to-date statistics on attainment and are comprehensive across all publicly funded schools in Scotland, demonstrating a clear rise in standards above pre-pandemic levels among primary school pupils.

“Along with this year’s SQA results, they point to widespread rises in attainment.

“I recognise that there is no room for complacency and our programme of reform across the education and skills system will help identify where further improvements can be made and will look to drive enhanced attainment to ensure all young people meet their full potential.”

But Scottish Lib Dem education spokesman Willie Rennie said: “The poverty-related attainment gap may have now returned to 2018/19 levels but that leaves the Scottish Government miles away from closing it by 2026, either completely or substantially.

“The SNP seem to have no clue why the gap isn’t closing and why performance overall has slipped.

“Their reform agenda has stalled so they now seem to have no clue about how to improve the performance of Scottish education. The responsibility on the Education Secretary to fill this vacuum is huge.”

Along with the attainment figures, the Scottish Government published its annual school summary figures, which show the highest number of pupils with additional support needs on record.

According to the figures, 259,036 pupils in Scottish schools had an additional support need – equivalent to 37% – and represented a near-doubling of the total figure since 2013, when it was 241,639.

The figures also showed a slight decrease in teacher numbers of 160, falling to 54,033, while the pupil to teacher ratio remained the same as in 2022 at 13.2.

The Scottish Tory education spokesman, Liam Kerr, said: “Today’s figures also show that the poverty-related attainment gap – which the SNP vowed to eliminate years ago – remains stubbornly high.

“Teachers do a vital job, yet the SNP has left them overstretched and under-resourced. For the sake of our children’s education, it cannot continue.

“Teachers deserve respect and support, it’s about time the SNP gave them that.”