Professor John Robertson OBA

The above tweet has triggered lots of angry doubting of the claim circled above. It’s no wonder folk do not know it’s an accurate statement or not because it was ignored by the media when it was published on 10th December 2024. Indeed, I missed it myself.

Anyhow, here it is:

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.

https://www.gov.scot/news/literacy-and-numeracy-standards-reach-record-high/#:~:text=The%20proportion%20of%20pupils%20achieving%20the%20expected%20level,S3%20also%20reached%20a%20new%20high%20of%2090.3%25.

In England, on 9 July 2024 [latest data], 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.⁵

Direct comparison with education in other countries is not always reliable but had this stark contrast [20-30% 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.