By Legerwood
There seem to be several ways to ‘measure’s the attainment gap. Opposition parties will of course use the method that gives them the answer they want.
University applications is one way. In 2018 UCAS which deals with University applications for Eng, Wales, NI and Scotland carried out an analysis of Uni applications over a 12 year period, 2006, to 2018 for each country in the UK. To aid the comparison they used a common measure of advantaged/disadvantage knownbas POLAR 3.
The results for Scotland showed that in 2006, when LabLibDems were in charge, about 9.3% of applications came from the most disadvantaged cohort. By 2018 that had almost doubled to just over 17%.
The ratio of applications from the most adv to most disadvantaged in 2006 was 4.5 to 1 by 2018 it was 2.6 to 1. As UCAS said in its Freb 2018 report this narrowing of the attainment gap was due to the large increase in applications from the most disadvantaged pupils. In 2019 there was a further slight narrowing of that gap.
UCAS only deals with 2/3rds of the Univ Applications for Scottish Unis the other 1/3rd are processed in Scotland and probably consist of those going th College first to do HNC & HND then transferring into Uni and those going the Direct Access route. Both of these routes are likely to appeal to disadvantaged students for various reasons therefore the attainment gap may be even narrower then UCAS calculated.
The recent results from Primary schools showing a narrowing of the gap suggests that narrowing of the gap will continue in future years as these pupils work their way through Secondary school.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
“Opposition parties will of course use the method that gives them the answer they want”
Would that be the wrong answer then ?…as in the one the media will report upon!
All of them are Masters in taking anything that is said and written completely ‘out of context’ and also in skewing the figures thus presenting their version of truth….emphasis on ‘version’ as opposed to ‘truth’…….
My God it’s a 24/7 job trying to keep up with them…..or rather keep up with their shenanigans…..no exceptions….as all opposition parties and media are involved in the grand deception….ongoing it is….until, that is, they assume their (non) Union is safe……which of course is the wrong assumption that they all will make….but make it they will….their complacency and arrogance knows no bounds….but they forget they, politically, are not considered by us as beacons of excellence as far as governments are concerned in either Wales or England….so why would we ‘ALLOW’ them to succeed in saving their UK…..as to the attainment gap I would say that with the cost of university education in England tis more likely the wealthier will be the ones taking the places in Universities than those from poorer backgrounds…so that gap will definitely widen in England…..where the haves will benefit more than the have nots….that’s the Tory, Lib Dem and New New Labour parties preferred education position in their UK….which is why they diss the SNP for their position on free tuition in Scotland…..
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25% of mature students ignored in the statistics.
ConDems cut education funding £6Billion a year from 2015 to 2020. £30Billion. The gap has never been restored. Scottish Gov has to mitigate funding.
Westminster wasting £Billions on Brexit. Losing £Billions. Scotland did not vote for it. EU membership contribution £4Billion. UK got £Billions back. 400 million nearest market, CAP payments and shared Defence costs.
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The writer makes a good point regarding the criteria by which attainment and achievement in schools is measured. If the criteria are restricted to a narrow range which are met by the particular proposition the government or persons in authority support and other criteria are excluded, then the data derived will support the proposition.
For example, so-called objective data like ‘league tables’ and PISA are restricted to a narrow range, which is known, in advance, to show the private schools in a good light and when the data are processed then the private schools come out best and schools in areas of high index of multiple deprivation ‘fail’.
So, if a criterion is the number of young people from a school going on to higher education immediately on leaving school, then private schools and schools in affluent areas will score highly compared to schools in more economically deprived areas because economic pressures and some social pressures mitigate against going to HE. Since a fair proportion of young people from such schools go into employment and/or trining such as apprenticeships or FE colleges because of economic pressures, then the criterion of an HE destination after leaving school is not met. Ergo – the school is ‘failing’.
This has been addressed in Scotland by the use of the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) which is allocated, uniquely, to every student in third year of secondary school and is used to identify the student at every subsequent stage of education, including Fe and HE. So people in Scotland, later in life can have their attainments and achievements in later life attributed to their secondary school. Thus, late entrants to higher education can be credited to their school, thereby making the ‘destination’ criterion fairer.
There are, in fact, many data which are measured regarding schools and students which give a far more nuanced picture and, more importantly demonstrate that schools and students from so-called ‘deprived’ backgrounds actually compare pretty well with the more affluent.
By investing more money into schools, especially in pre-school and early years and, especially, in support for mothers, then these differences can be further narrowed. Private schools get tax breaks – such as charitable status and rates relief – which are, in fact, public subsidies. Remove these and other perks and invest then in public education.
Private schools are not about ‘better teaching’ – the teachers’ qualification are little different from state school teachers – but about ‘social contacts’, the old school tie, the rugby club, the golf club, etc.
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Private schools have smaller class sizes. Not in five/six years. Selective. Oxbridge funded 20 to 1 of all other universities. Ruining the economy.
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I wouldn’t mind so much were it only “Opposition parties will of course use the method that gives them the answer they want”, but when the media do so as C4’s Kathryn Samson, purporting to journalistic integrity, nay “impartiality” per HMS James Cook, the bias of “Opposition parties” are the least of Scotland’s problems.
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