Talk of “attainment gaps” tends to refer to disparities in results between students at opposite ends of measures of poverty.
As students throughout Scotland received annual exam results from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) yesterday however, education secretary Jenny Gilruth was keen to highlight a different kind of attainment gap - this one along geographical lines.
In her official statement marking SQA results day 2024 - after a year in which courses were the closest in format to the pre-Covid norms since the pandemic struck in 2020 - Ms Gilruth pointed to the “wide degree of variation in results between our 32 local authorities”.
Councils’ differing pass rates in 2024
But just how big are the attainment gaps between different council areas in 2024? We delved into the data to find out:
National 5
At National 5, the overall A-C pass rate for 2024 is 77.2 per cent. However, the extremities are 70.7 per cent (Angus) and 88.1 per cent (East Renfrewshire), amounting to a gap of 17.4 percentage points.
Higher
At Higher, while the overall A-C pass rate for 2024 is 74.9 per cent, the SQA data released yesterday shows that this varies from between 65.8 per cent in Angus and 84.9 per cent in East Renfrewshire, a gap of 19.1 percentage points.
Advanced Higher
At Advanced Higher, the 2024 SQA data shows a nationwide A-C pass rate of 75.3 per cent. This ranges, however, from 62.9 per cent (in both West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian) to 77.9 per cent (East Renfrewshire), a gap of 15 percentage points.
What is causing pass-rate variations?
Relative affluence in different parts of Scotland is likely to be a significant factor in varying pass rates, but Ms Gilruth clearly believes there are reasons other than poverty over which education leaders can exert more influence. Another big factor, some teachers have pointed out, could be local presentation policies: that is, higher percentage pass rates might be achieved if fewer students are allowed to take courses.
In her results day statement, the education secretary went on to say she would be meeting with all local authority directors of education, as well as SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson and interim chief education inspector Janie McManus, in order to “drive the improvements we all want to see”.
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