By stewartb
I asked ChatGPT this question: ‘Is the poverty-related attainment gap as politicised by opposition political parties and the news media in England and Wales as in Scotland? And why?
This is its response summary:
‘Scotland has experienced intense political and media scrutiny because poverty-related attainment gap metrics are explicitly tied to government pledges. Successes and failures are amplified and often politicized.
‘In England and Wales, the attainment gap is treated more as a persistent structural problem, less as a political litmus test. Media and opposition criticism focus on general educational standards, funding, and recovery programmes, rather than direct failure to meet a narrowed-gap pledge.
‘The result is a far more politically charged and media-saturated environment in Scotland, unlike in England and Wales, where the discourse is broader and less centered on government identity.’
So in a politically charged environment like Scotland’s, might a governing party get more favourable media coverage by NOT setting ambitious social policy targets, by not committing to try to change matters for the better? Perhaps in the context of having severely limited fiscal and zero monetary policy levers, and in the face of Westminster-imposed austerity – and then an unpredicted global pandemic – joining the Westminster consensus and treating the poverty-related attainment gap as (just) a ‘persistent structural problem’ would have been the ‘wiser’ political choice.
But then with a pro-independence political party governing in Scotland, no doubt the mainstream media would have found some other reason to politicise education outcomes here in ways not replicated in England and Wales.
Talking-up Scotland 
Targets, such as ‘closing the attainment gap between students in the lowest socioeconomic groups and the rest’, set out by Nicola Sturgeon in the early days of he First Ministership, are aspirational. They indicate a direction of travel, a goal.
It is a laudable intention and one that I supported and continue to do so. It is the kind of thing that the uninspiring, stumbling, directionless Starmer government signally refused to do. It lacks a narrative and needs one, because Farage has one, egregious and mendacious, but it gives people something to understand.
However, as far as our unionist, right wing media are concerned the target becomes a source of BLAMING. And BLAMING as an end in itself is what they do.
Because the target focussed on the ‘gap’, it means that as long as a gap exists, whether narrowing or not, actual improvements in the proportion of young people from the lowest socioeconomic is ignored by the media. A gap still exists, ergo the SG has failed.
If, in 2015 10% of the lowest socioeconomic group attained A Grade Advanced Highers and 30% of the the highest socioeconomic did so, and in 2025, 50% of the lowest group and 70% of the highest group attained this, the gap is still 20%, but this ignores significant improvements by ALL students.
Cue unionist glee THE SG HAS FAILED!!
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ITS TRUETHESE ENGLSH ZEALOTS ARE LYING TO SAVE THEIR COUNTRY
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