Scottish Tories criticise latest report on education attainment

The Scottish Conservatives have said the Education Secretary “needs to stop patting herself on the back” after a report revealed a widening attainment gap and fewer children achieving expected levels in literacy and numeracy.

The Scottish Government’s National Improvement Framework (NIF) Interactive Evidence Report, published on Wednesday, provides an update on information from across identified priority areas for education such as literacy, numeracy, school leaver attainment, participation of 16 to 19-year-olds, health and wellbeing and parental engagement.

It also addresses the Government’s progress in closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children.

The document identified that in 2020/21, fewer pupils in P1, P4 and P7 combined achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels for literacy, reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy than in the 2018/19 academic year.

Some 66.9% of Scottish pupils achieved the level in literacy, while 75.2% reached the expected level for reading.

Writing saw 69.8%, while 82.7% was reported for listening and talking, and 74.7% for numeracy.

However, schools in 2018/19 recorded 72.3% for literacy, 79.8% for reading, 75.1% for writing, 85.9% for listening and talking and 79.1% for numeracy.

The report also showed that in 2020/21, 49.5% of pupils from the most deprived backgrounds left school having achieved one or more qualifications at SCQF level 6 or higher.

This was achieved by 83.9% of pupils from the least deprived backgrounds – a difference of 34.4 percentage points.

Since 2018/19, the attainment gap has also widened by four percentage points in literacy, 3.5 percentage points in listening and talking, 4.3 percentage points in writing and 4.7 percentage points in numeracy for pupils in P1, P4 and P7 combined.

Stephen Kerr, education spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: “The declines in educational attainment in recent years pour scorn on the SNP’s self-congratulatory attempts to claim all is well in our schools on their watch.

“The reality is far different. Primary results are getting worse on every measure while fewer than half our most deprived children obtain a single university entrance level qualification.

“And compared with the least deprived, there is a shocking gap of almost 35 percentage points.

“The SNP’s Education Secretary urgently needs to stop patting herself on the back and instead focus on improving standards and attainment in our schools, rather than continuing to let our students down.”