Scotland closes attainment gap, hits record literacy and numeracy standards, 32% above England, after maintaining 36% more teachers

Professor John Robertson OBA, former Associate Dean (Quality Assurance) Faculty of Education, UWS

From Literacy and numeracy standards reach record high, published today:

The proportion of pupils achieving the expected level in literacy and numeracy across primary and secondary schools has reached a new high, officials figures show.

For numeracy, a record 80.3% of pupils across P1, P4 and P7 reached expected levels, while S3 also reached a new high of 90.3%. For literacy, achievement is also now at a record high in both primary (74%) and secondary (88.3%).

The attainment gap between young people from the most and least deprived areas meeting standards in literacy has also reached a new low, according to the latest Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels 2023-24 (ACEL) statistics.1

In England, on 9 July 2024, for 11 year-olds [P7]:

[Only] 61% of pupils reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths, up from 60% in 2023. This is below 2019 attainment, where 65% of pupils met the standard.2

Direct comparison with education in other countries is not always reliable but had this stark contrast [32% better] operated in the opposite direction, with England at 80% and Scotland at 61%, you can be sure our media would be all over it.

What has made Scotland’s success possible after 17 years of SNP rule?

While there will be other factors, the ratio of pupils to teachers is recognised by researchers and in common sense, to be crucial.

In Scotland, as of 10 December 2024, there was a teacher for every 13.3 pupils.3 This ratio has been in the range 13.6/1 to 13.2/1 for six years.

In England? a teacher for every 18 pupils, 5 more, – 36% better.4

Sources:

  1. https://www.gov.scot/news/literacy-and-numeracy-standards-reach-record-high/?s=03
  2. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-2-attainment-national-headlines#:~:text=In%202024%2C%2061%25%20of%20pupils,of%20pupils%20met%20the%20standard.
  3. https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2024/
  4. https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-projections-implications-teacher-resourcing-needs-scotland-education-workforce-modelling-research/pages/4/

Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) with my regular column on media coverage at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/

The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116

About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis

10 thoughts on “Scotland closes attainment gap, hits record literacy and numeracy standards, 32% above England, after maintaining 36% more teachers”

  2. The political opposition and media are so heavily invested in the propaganda of failure in Scotland that some negative will be found or constructed if it is reported on at all.

    More illuminating and alarming of the older generation in England was from an interview with Martin Lewis recently, where he was recounting what he’d been told by a bank what had been received on a campaign he had run for compensation, possibly PPI. He was dumfounded to learn ca 5-10% of his template letter (made available to the public) had arrived with {Insert name here} etc unaltered from the original.

    No child under either system of education would fail to understand {Insert name here} etc., yet society seems to beat it out of some of them, and they vote….

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  3. Something followers of TUS will already know of course but interesting interview with some guy from the Teachers Union in England on TV this morning about Pay levels telling that Secondary teachers in Scotland are paid £6000 more than their English counterparts. It just demonstartes that for many public sector workers life in Scotland is so much better.

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  4. As always, very grateful to you for stating the facts. Every day I appreciate your endless work in showing Scotland’s government’s true societal care and achievements. Where would we be without your scrutiny and re-drawing the landscape back from from the skewed media’s disniformation?

    Santa must be very proud of all you do, so you deserve a VERY LOVELY CHRISTMAS.

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  5. Pingback: BBC Scotland and Prof Paterson shamefully misinterpret statistics to cast another cohort of Scottish students and staff as failures when they are not – Talking-up Scotland
  6. Pingback: Willie Rennie flunks his mathematics resit – Talking-up Scotland
  7. Pingback: It’s a very different experience for pupils and teachers in Scotland and it works. Don’t let the inexpert but loud tell you otherwise. Get the facts here – Talking-up Scotland
  8. Pingback: Deluded nonsense – Scotland’s schools ARE demonstrably succeeding if you just read the statistics and the Herald is always deid in Schrödinger’s box – Talking-up Scotland [Collective]

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