Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to AR for alerting me to this.
In Summer 2024, GCSE students in the United Kingdom (sic) had a pass rate (achieving a grade of C/4 or higher) of 67.6 percent.1
GCSE is, of course, only undertaken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by pupils around 16 years of age. In Scotland:
Scottish National 5 certificates grade A to C are equivalent to GCSEs grade grade 4 to 9 . 2
How did Scottish pupils do in this assessment also typically taken by pupils at the end of 4th Year, at around 16 years of age?
In 2024, 38.1 percent of National 5 entries in Scotland were awarded an A grade, compared with 21.7 percent being awarded a B grade, and 17.5 percent a C grade.3
That’s a total achieving at least C, in Scotland, of 77.3%, a 9.7% gap and thus 14.3% better than in other parts of UK.
That nearly 10% gap really matters. Around 310 000 pupils in Scotland take National 54 so roughly 30 000 achieve an A-C pass in Scotland’s better-staffed schools than would have happened had they studied in the often badly understaffed schools of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Evidence?
Pupil to teacher ratios in maintained schools were lowest in Scotland (13.2) and similar in Northern Ireland (17.4), England (18.0) and Wales (18.4).5
Sources:
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/282462/gcse-pass-rates-uk/#:~:text=In%20Summer%202024%2C%20GCSE%20students%20in%20the%20United,noticeable%20increase%20when%20compared%20with%20years%20before%202020.
- http://www.gostudyuk.com/gcses-and-equivalents/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/326386/scotland-attainment-statistics-standard-grade/#:~:text=In%202024%2C%2038.1%20percent%20of%20National%205%20entries,B%20grade%2C%20and%2017.5%20percent%20a%20C%20grade.
- https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/attainment-statistics-(august)-2022-provisional-summary.pdf#:~:text=At%20National%205%2C%20there%20were%20310%2C170%20entries%20in,from%20194%2C660%20in%202021%3B%20Figure%201%3B%20Table%202%29.
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2023
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Exactly the kind of ”good news” story that is anathema to the Scottish media .
Ignored by the BBC , unless they could put a negative spin on it with a quote from Paterson the Education ”expert” with no experience of education since he passed the ”quali ” !
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Aye, the Bean Counter! To be fair, he used to count coos and pigs and sheep too.
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O/T apologies.
Rupert Lowe , ex Reform UK MP, tweeted this on ‘X’
“We are making progress – ten MPs have signed my mass deportation motion. The newest, John Lamont MP @John2Win”.
“Six Tories, two independent, one TUV, one DUP. Tag your MP, and ask them to do the right thing. Restore confidence in our borders – sign the mass deportation motion”.
Can this Tory MP , Lamont, display any more of a Reform UK (ish) set of non values in him being devoid of human decency as in being more heinous and self serving as a careerist than the one (Rupert Lowe) who created this “motion” for other despicables at WM to support and also sign.
John Lamont showing us why we in Scotland do not vote for his party via a majority.
I wonder if Rupert (and Ben Habib) forms a new political party whether we will then see a careerist like Lamont join it , especially as his , Lamont’s, own party , the Tories, are now seemingly in decline within England.
Never a trust a Tory and never vote for them either unless you too support cruelty and also support ‘hate over hope’ for those others , who as human beings, are more vulnerable and so in need of help from others, like say the UK.
I suspect many who vote for Lamont in GE’s do so as they are cut from the same cloth in their lack of compassion too for others while only thinking selfishly of themselves, just like John Lamont.
Thank God I am not a Tory voter in Scotland , as with a party like the Tories, who as a party assume that they can talk down to the SNP, as if they themselves were worthy of the (undeserved) votes that they receive in elections. Votes that I can only assume they , Tories, get in order to maintain their message of ‘Hate over Hope’.
Vote SNP in 2026 to prove to despicable and duplicitous Tory MP’s like John Lamont that we in Scotland, via a majority, do not support those horrible things that they support and try to both (over) promote and implement, even those ‘motions’ from an ex Reform UK MP, like Rupert ‘no devolution’ Lowe.
Tories like Lamont living up to their name of the Nasty party.
Of course the fact that Rupert also got 5 other Tory MP’s as well as Lamont , one former DUP member now an Independent MP, a current DUP MP, a ‘Traditional Unionist Voice’ MP to also sign his motion is testimony to the fact that for all of them there is more that unites them , as parties and as supposed ‘Independents’, than divides them.
They are all despicable and represent a part of the more shameful aspects of their UK that is always to be found in UK politics and also very much too in their UK media.
Some of whom , as a media , support motions such as Rupert’s latest attention seeking motion (trying to grab the headlines away from his former party) that always seeks to scapegoat others, for what is actually, as a real cause and effect, happened only as a result of a very much UK political (wrong) policy and a UK (wrong) direction, such as Brexit, that isolates their UK and leaves it vulnerable economically , and the UK media who are also shameful , supports both their UK wrong policies and too their UK wrong direction.
British Nationalism over humanitarian causes.
Liz S
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