Exam results show decline in A to C passes for maths and English

Exam results have shown a decline in the number of students gaining grades A to C in the key subjects of maths and English.

The latest results figures from the Scottish Qualifications Authority showed that the proportion of students passing Advanced Higher English with these grades fell from 78.7% last year to 70.9% this year.

There was also a drop in students receiving A to C in Advanced Higher Maths, which went from 76% in 2023 to 70.2% in 2024.

Decreases were also recorded for Highers, with the proportion of students gaining A to C grades in English going from 75.9% to 74.6%, while for maths it went from 73.2% to 72.7%

For those students sitting National 5 qualifications in English, 84.3% passed with grades A to C – down from 86.3% in 2023.

But for National 5 maths, the numbers receiving these marks rose from 62.4% to 68.1%.

The SQA has stressed “significant caution” should be exercised when comparing results, as changes during and after the Covid pandemic mean that different approaches have been used in awarding exams in every year since 2019.

But the EIS teaching union said the results “underscore the need for urgent reform of senior phase assessment and qualifications”.

Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr said: “We cannot ignore the impact of more than 17 years of failure by the SNP on these results.

“The widening of the attainment gap continues to shamefully let down pupils from our most deprived backgrounds.

“The reality is that the SNP have failed a generation of Scotland’s pupils during their time in office.”

His comments came as the SQA noted that at National 5 level for “other large-uptake subjects”, such as applications of mathematics, biology, and physical education, “the A to C attainment rate decreased in 2024 from 2023”.

Similarly for Highers the A to C attainment rate decreased in between 2023 and 2024 in popular subjects, such as chemistry, history and physical education.

The SQA noted: “Of these five highest-uptake subjects, history saw the largest A to C attainment decrease, from 78.7% in 2023 to 65.7% in 2024.”

And at National 5 level it said that for “large-uptake subjects, including applications of mathematics, biology, and physical education, the A to C attainment rate decreased in 2024 from 2023”.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley congratulated all those receiving results, stressing: “We cannot forget that this cohort of candidates experienced significant disruption to their education not so long ago.”

The results have been awarded “in the midst of the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory”, Ms Bradley said, with this coming at a time when “education, and students and their families, are still struggling in many respects to recover from the long-term damaging impacts of the global pandemic”.

However, she added: “The widening of the poverty-related attainment gap, which the Scottish Government has previously pledged to eliminate, further highlights the need for substantial additional investment in Scottish education, its schools and its professional teaching workforce to ensure that all young people receive the support they need and deserve, including to overcome poverty-related disadvantage and to enable achievement in parity with more affluent peers.

“At a time when student need is growing, staffing levels and resources for schools and colleges are shrinking. This needs to be turned around.”

Ms Bradley continued: “This year’s results also underscore the need for urgent reform of senior phase assessment and qualifications.”

Here she said a review of education had “highlighted how the current treadmill of high-stakes exams is not fit for purpose, least so for the most socio-economically disadvantaged students; and must be reformed”.

The union leader added: The EIS very much looks forward to the Government’s long-awaited response to the review, and hopes to see decisions made that are solidly in the interests of sound education and social justice.”