As BBC Scotland anticipate a widening attainment gap today, how the SNP HAS CLOSED the attainment gap within Scottish schools and WIDENED it with England

Professor John Robertson OBA

This morning BBC UK’s Scotland Correspondent repeated the old ‘concerns about the Scottish Government’s failure to close the attainment gap.‘ It’s a lie.

From the Scottish Government’s Literacy and numeracy standards reach record high report in December 2024:

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.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-2-attainment-national-headlines/2023-24

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.

Also, ignored:

A game-changer in education, the narrowing of the attainment gaps and the increased attainment of the most disadvantaged

to my mind, after nearly 40 years in education, more important than narrowing gaps is increased attainment for the most disadvantaged:

At SCQF level 7, the gap in 2009/10, two years after the SNP first came to power, was 24.1 and by 2021/22 it was still 22.2, though down from 25 in the previous year. If you have limited understating of statistics or cynically only wish to accuse the SNP Government of failure, these statistics hide the true nature of change.

In 2009/10 only 4.7% of those in the most disadvantaged 20% had achieved at this level but by 2021/22, the figure was 10.3%, more than doubling in only 12 years. Remember also, that 20% means nearly 3 000 pupils every year

https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-attainment-initial-leaver-destinations-no-5-2023-edition/documents/

11 thoughts on “As BBC Scotland anticipate a widening attainment gap today, how the SNP HAS CLOSED the attainment gap within Scottish schools and WIDENED it with England”

  1. Which ‘ Scotland Correspondent ‘ was that John, would he/she/it have been edumacated in the Great Scottish Enlightenment years under Labour, before ‘concerns’ became factual ‘news’ reporting, a la Glenn Campbell ?

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  2. Yes yes all well and good but to BBC Scotland the most concerning issues is the delay in getting results to our ‘Islands children’ which no doubt will be causing undue distress and anxiety that Calmac once again failed to deliver results thro’ gale force seas. I guess a win win for BBC Scotland.

    Robbo

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  4. Everything that the BBC touts as bad, and very bad about Scotland, is exactly the opposite.
    They are pulling the wool over peoples’ eyes and succeeding, in part at least. They’ve done education, NHS, transport, ferries, wind turbines etc, what will they lie about next is anyone’s guess. It’s a wonder anyone lives in Scotland, it’s sounds like an awful part of England’s North Britain.

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    1. To be pedantic, I don’t think that spraying bullshit over Scots perceptions of themselves can strictly be classified as pulling wool over any Scots eyes however messy the comparative…

      For some strange reason I recall Fyfe Robertson reporting in the days when accuracy in BBC journalism actually mattered in black and white, long before Agent Smith and her trainee Agent Cook masqueraded as ‘journalists’ in the propaganda wars – As stilted as Fyfe was at that age, and he may very well have been leaned on to desist investigation of certain news items, he was actually a journalist, not a propagandist.

      James Cook and his predecessor Sarah Smith were never journalists, they were ever propagandists..

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  5. Pingback: BBC Scotland misunderstands the attainment gap again, only ever really closed in Maoist China and Albania, to platform the Scottish Cons and Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy un-educated rants – Talking-up Scotland
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