Gilruth announces £43m to ‘build on progress’ tackling attainment gap

The Education Secretary has announced another £43 million to help tackle the poverty-related education attainment gap.

Jenny Gilruth said the cash will be given out to councils which run Scotland’s schools.

Schools will be offered support through the recruitment of additional teachers, support staff and family link workers, and “enhanced professional learning” for teachers.

The minister said: “Closing the poverty-related attainment gap is a vital part in our commitment to eradicate child poverty at Scotland.

“When more children are given a chance to succeed through education, the more we accelerate our progress in reaching this goal.”

Ms Gilruth said the Government’s strategy is “translating into results”, with the deprivation gap narrowing at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher level over the past year.

She added: “It is important that we continue to build on this progress and the funding announced today will do exactly that.”

In August, the latest exam results showed the level of attainment for Scottish youngsters has increased, but the poverty-related gap persists.

The rate of pupils achieving between an A and a C at National 5 increased from 77.2% to 78.4%, while Higher jumped from 74.9% to 75.9% and Advanced Higher from 75.3% to 76.7%.

The poverty-related attainment gap – the difference between the A-C rate for those from the 20% of the most deprived areas of Scotland compared to the most affluent – shrunk narrowly, the data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority showed.

In 2016, then first minister Nicola Sturgeon said her Government would push to substantially reduce the attainment gap by 2026, writing in that year’s Programme for Government document that elimination of the gap was “a yardstick by which the people of Scotland can measure our success”.

The rate remains substantial.

The National 5 rate dropped from 17.2% to 16.6%, while Higher saw a small dip from 17.2% to 17.1%, and Advanced Higher from 15.5% to 12.8%.