JOHN Swinney has described a “slight fall” in the number of pupils leaving school with at least one exam pass as a “fluctuation”.
The Education Secretary and Deputy First Minister also revealed a review of the school curriculum will be carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and “will look carefully at achievement in the senior phase so that we can improve further”.
He told MSPs that Scotland has a “high performing” education system. A report published last week showed the number of school leavers who had at least one pass at National 4, National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher dropped slightly.
The figures showed the number of school leavers who had at least one pass at Higher level dropped from 62.2% in 2017-18 to 60.5% in 2018-19. For Advanced Higher, the decrease went from 20.2% to 19.1%.
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The Scottish Government figures further revealed the proportion of leavers with at least one pass at National 4 level went from 96.2% to 95.9% over the period, with a drop from 85.9% to 85.1% for the number who had at least one National 5 level qualification.
The Education Secretary said: “Compared with the previous year, there has been a slight fall in attainment for school leavers who achieved one or more national qualifications.
“In any high performing system there will be fluctuation, however over time the percentage of school leavers achieving one or more pass at National 5 and Higher level has improved substantially.” Figures show 28.7% of school leavers had five Higher passes or more in 2018-19, compared to 30.4% the previous year.
While 59.3% of pupils from the least deprived areas went on to university, only 25.9% of their counterparts from the poorest areas achieved this. Overall, just over two-fifths (40.3%) of those who finished school in 2018-19 went on to university, with more than a quarter (27.3%) continuing into other forms of further education. Over a fifth (22.9%) went into employment, while 3.5% found a training place.
Across Scotland, a record 95% of school leavers went on to positive destinations – such as further or higher education, training or employment – within three months of leaving school.
Meanwhile, the gap between the number of pupils from the most deprived areas leaving school with at least one National 4 qualification, and those from the least deprived areas who achieved this, increased from 6.1 points to 6.7 points.
Swinney said: “For the ninth consecutive year, more young Scots are in study, training or work three months after leaving school than ever before.
“Moreover, the gap between the richest and poorest communities for those moving into a positive destination continues to narrow.”
He said this showed the Curriculum for Excellence education reforms were “delivering one of the ultimate aims of school education – to secure a positive next step in learning, life and work for our young people”.
Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Jamie Greene said: “It’s a complete disgrace that the attainment gap is growing again in certain areas, especially after all the noise the SNP has made about this issue over the years.”
Labour education spokesperson Iain Gray said there needed to be a “whole-scale review of the badly implemented Curriculum for Excellence”.
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