Ministers in Scotland are facing intense criticism over a sluggish increase in exam passes by teenagers from deprived areas after repeated promises to greatly improve performance.
Opposition parties and Scotland’s largest teaching union said progress in closing the attainment gap – the difference between exam passes for pupils from the wealthiest areas and those from the most deprived – was too slow and too patchy.
In 2016, Nicola Sturgeon, then the first minister, published her government’s legislative programme with the promise that “substantially eliminating” the attainment gap by 2026 would be her government’s “defining mission”.
This year’s exam results showed that the attainment gap had closed slightly year on year for pupils sitting National 5s, the Scottish equivalent to GCSEs, falling from 17.2 percentage points last year to 16.5 points this year.
For Scottish Highers, the standard qualification for university applications and roughly equivalent to A-levels, the gap this year fell marginally to 17.1 points from 17.2 points in 2024, then the highest on record.
Scottish Labour said education was stagnating under the Scottish National party. Data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority showed this year’s attainment gap was very similar to that of 2019, the year before the Covid crisis hit, when the gap for National 5s was 17 points.
Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson, accused Jenny Gilruth, the education secretary, of deflecting questions about the failure to meet its target when she was questioned on BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday morning.
“It is damning that Jenny Gilruth cannot say whether the attainment gap will be closed by next year,” Duncan-Glancy said. “This once again proves that any promises made by the SNP are simply not worth the paper they are written on.”
Gilruth said they were measuring progress against literacy and numeracy levels in schools, and on improving access to university, not on exam passes. On both counts, attainment was improving, she said.
The universities clearing house, Ucas, said on Tuesday a record number of Scots from the most deprived areas had won university places, up by 5.5 points year on year to 2,060 people. However, only 16% of the 18-year-olds given places were from the poorest areas, compared with 43.6% from the most advantaged.
Gilruth said the Covid crisis and Scotland’s funding levels from the UK government were significant factors. “I’m absolutely committed to our continued work to close the attainment gap, but I am in no way shirking away from the challenge we’ve seen in terms of the Covid pandemic and austerity in our schools,” she said.
Thousands of pupils across the Western Isles, Arran, Orkney and Shetland received their results late after Monday’s severe storm delayed postal deliveries. The overall results showed pass rates for National 5s and Highers had increased beyond the rate in 2019, with A-grade passes at their highest level.
Andrea Bradley, the general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said “further solid steps” were needed to tackle poverty.
“If Scotland is to eradicate the poverty-related attainment gap and deliver an education system that truly and equitably meets the diverse needs of all learners, then greater investment in schools and colleges, in resources and in teaching and support staff is essential,” she said.
