John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have been urged to apologise to Scottish pupils after failing to deliver on a promise to close the school attainment gap by this year.
Scotland's exam results, released yesterday, revealed there remains a huge gap between the performance of the poorest and wealthiest pupils. While the gap has narrowed slightly over the past year, it remains wider than it was a decade ago, when Swinney was education secretary and Sturgeon pledged to eradicate it completely by 2026, calling it the "defining mission" of her government.
Mairi McAllan, the current education secretary, said it was "particularly pleasing" that the gap between pupils from the most and least deprived areas had narrowed over the past year. She was unable to say when the SNP would deliver on its commitment to close the gap entirely.
More than 148,000 pupils received their exam results yesterday, with pass rates rising across National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.
Exam pass rates rise across the board
At National 5 level, the A-C pass rate was 79.2 per cent, up from 78.4 per cent last year and 77.2 per cent in 2024. For Highers, the pass rate reached 76.7 per cent, compared with 75.9 per cent last year and 74.9 per cent in 2024. For Advanced Highers, the rate rose from 75.3 per cent in 2024 to 76.7 per cent last year and 77.6 per cent this year.
The gap between the A-C pass rate for pupils from the least and most deprived areas stood at 15.6 percentage points for National 5, 15.9 percentage points for Highers and 12.1 percentage points for Advanced Highers. All three were down from the previous year's figures of 16.4, 16.8 and 13.3 percentage points respectively. In each qualification, the gap remains higher than it was in 2016.
Political reaction
Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher said SNP ministers had "absolutely no room for complacency" despite the achievements of young people, and that no amount of spin could hide what she called Sturgeon's betrayal of Scotland's poorest pupils. Gallacher said Sturgeon had promised to have substantially eliminated the poverty-related attainment gap by 2026 and that the SNP government had miserably failed to do so, making painfully slow progress since the pandemic. She said pupils were still facing a postcode lottery in their chances of educational achievement, and called on Sturgeon and Swinney to apologise to pupils in the most deprived communities, adding that two decades of SNP failure meant Scotland's reputation for a gold standard of education no longer existed.
Scottish Labour education spokeswoman Katherine Sangster welcomed the improvement in exam results as a testament to the hard work of pupils and the dedication of teachers, but said there was no room for complacency in giving the next generation the future they deserve. Sangster said the SNP had promised a decade ago to close the attainment gap, but that it had since widened, and that no child should be held back by their postcode or background.
Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, welcomed the progress on the attainment gap over the past year but said its persistence remained a huge concern and a huge challenge. She called for further action, including greater investment and capping class sizes at 20 across all ages and subjects, to give schools a fighting chance of tackling the poverty-related achievement and attainment gap. Bradley said no young person should be disadvantaged in their education because of poverty and factors entirely outwith their control.
Education secretary defends record
McAllan described the results as incredibly positive across the board, with academic passes up at every level and record numbers of vocational qualifications, calling it a testament to the breadth and strength of Scotland's education system, the professionalism of teachers and school staff, and the hard work of young people. She said the narrowing of the attainment gap built on similar progress in literacy and numeracy gaps, as well as in the number of young people entering initial positive destinations, which she said had narrowed by almost two thirds since 2009-10.
McAllan said the government would not be complacent and would continue working to close the poverty-related attainment gap further, pointing to £1.75 billion invested in the Scottish Attainment Challenge over the past decade and up to £200 million being invested this year. In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast yesterday, she was unable to say when the attainment gap would be closed completely.
Donna Stewart, Scotland's chief qualifications and examinations officer, said Scotland's learners should be proud of what they had achieved, adding that officials were very proud of them too. Stewart said the results were a testament to pupils' hard work and commitment, and that the rise in overall attainment across all three National Qualification levels, along with increasing attainment in vocational and technical qualifications, would be welcomed in classrooms and staff rooms across Scotland.
