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From the National Standardised Assessments for Scotland National Report for Academic Year 2024-2025, published today, we can see the one year results but no trends.

This is a classic example of a task where you can trust AI so I asked it for the trend and the sources upon which it based that. After 40 years in HE, I think I would spot errors.

Trends in Literacy and Numeracy Achievement in Scotland

The Scottish Government’s National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) reports provide annual snapshots of assessment outcomes in bands for literacy (reading and writing) and numeracy, but they do not include year-over-year trends, likely because the assessments are diagnostic tools and may vary slightly in design or focus. However, SNSA data contributes to teacher judgements in the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels (ACEL) statistics, which do track national trends in literacy and numeracy attainment based on expected CfE levels for each stage. ACEL data is collected for Primary 1 (P1, Early Level), Primary 4 (P4, First Level), Primary 7 (P7, Second Level), and Secondary 3 (S3, Third Level or better).I’ve compiled the national ACEL trends below using official Scottish Government data. “Literacy” here is a combined measure (pupils achieving expected levels in reading, writing, and listening & talking). Percentages are for pupils achieving the expected CfE level for their stage. Primary data is combined across P1, P4, and P7 (roughly equal pupil numbers per stage, so it’s a weighted average). No data was collected in 2019/20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and S3 data was not collected in 2020/21.Primary (P1, P4, P7 Combined)

Year	Literacy (%)	Numeracy (%)
2016/17	69.2	76.4
2017/18	71.4	78.4
2018/19	72.3	79.1
2020/21	66.9	74.7
2021/22	70.5	77.9
2022/23	72.7	79.6
2023/24	74.0	80.3
2024/25	74.5	80.3

• Literacy Trend: Declined during the pandemic (low of 66.9% in 2020/21), then steadily recovered, surpassing pre-pandemic levels (2018/19: 72.3%) and reaching a record high in 2024/25.
• Numeracy Trend: Similar pandemic dip (low of 74.7% in 2020/21), with recovery to a joint record high in 2023/24 and 2024/25, slightly above pre-pandemic (2018/19: 79.1%).

Secondary 3 (S3, Third Level or Better)

Year	Literacy (%)	Numeracy (%)
2016/17	87	88
2017/18	88	89
2018/19	88	90
2021/22	86	89
2022/23	87.8	89.5
2023/24	88.3	90.3
2024/25	89.8	90.9

• Literacy Trend: Stable pre-pandemic around 87-88%, slight dip post-pandemic, then increasing to a record high in 2024/25.
• Numeracy Trend: Similar pattern, with a record high in 2024/25.

These figures show overall improvement in recent years, with records set in 2023/24 and 2024/25. The post-pandemic recovery is evident, though attainment gaps (e.g., by deprivation) persist but have narrowed in some areas (e.g., S3 literacy gap at a record low of 10.8 percentage points in 2024/25).

Here are the key official sources for the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels (ACEL) data, which provide the national statistics on literacy and numeracy attainment trends (based on teacher judgements of expected CfE levels).

These are the primary Scottish Government publications I drew from for the trends in my previous response.Main 2024-25 Report and Related Pages

• Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2024-25 (full statistical publication, released December 2025):
  https://www.gov.scot/publications/achievement-of-curriculum-for-excellence-cfe-levels-2024-25/
  This is the core report with national-level data for 2024-25, including breakdowns by stage (P1, P4, P7, S3) and organiser (literacy, numeracy). It includes comparisons to previous years where available, noting record highs for literacy (74.5% primary combined; 89.8% S3) and numeracy (80.3% primary combined; 90.9% S3).
• Chapter 1: Achievement of CfE Levels at Scotland level (detailed national overview from the 2024-25 report):
  https://www.gov.scot/publications/achievement-of-curriculum-for-excellence-cfe-levels-2024-25/pages/chapter-1-achievement-of-cfe-levels-at-scotland-level/
  Highlights record or equal-highest figures and includes tables/charts for recent years.
• News release: Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels, 2024-25 (summary with key figures and context):
  https://www.gov.scot/news/achievement-of-curriculum-for-excellence-cfe-levels-2024-25/
  Confirms primary literacy at 74.5% and numeracy at 80.3%; S3 literacy at 89.8% and numeracy at 90.9%.
• Delivering educational improvements (broader news release referencing the 2024-25 ACEL data):
  https://www.gov.scot/news/delivering-educational-improvements/
  Notes the record highs and post-pandemic recovery context.

Previous Years’ Reports (for Historical Trends)For year-on-year comparisons (e.g., back to 2016/17), refer to the archived versions on the Scottish Government site. Each annual publication includes tables with prior years’ data (revisions sometimes applied retrospectively):

• 2023-24 report (for comparison): https://www.gov.scot/news/achievement-of-curriculum-for-excellence-cfe-levels-2023-24/
• Earlier years follow a similar pattern (search “Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels [year]” on gov.scot).

The ACEL data series starts from 2016/17 (with gaps in 2019/20 due to COVID and partial in 2020/21 for S3). No single page lists all historical trends in one table, but each publication’s supplementary tables or methodology sections reference them, and the full datasets are often available via linked Excel downloads or data requests on the site.