The proportion of last year’s school leavers in a “positive destination” - including university, work or college - three months after leaving school increased slightly from 95.5 per cent in 2020-21 to 95.7 per cent last year, according to new figures from the Scottish government.
However, the latest attainment and initial leaver destinations statistics also show the proportion entering the most common destination - higher education - dropped from a high of 45.1 per cent in 2020-21 to 41.2 per cent for last year’s school leavers.
According to the report: “This decrease brings the proportion of school leavers in higher education in 2021-22 back into line with figures seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Meanwhile, 25.1 per cent of 2021-22 school leavers were recorded as being in employment three months after leaving school, in October 2022, the highest proportion since consistent records began.
Last year, therefore, the proportion of school leavers in employment was equivalent to the proportion in further education, with 25.5 per cent of school leavers recorded as being in further education last year, an increase on 2020-21 but “still the second lowest proportion of leavers in further education since 2009-10”.
The figures, published yesterday, also show the proportion of unemployed young people fell to 3.9 per cent - the lowest level since 2009-10.
However, Tes Scotland has repeatedly highlighted concerns about the kind of work school leavers need to be in for them to be classed as employed.
The employment category “includes those who consider themselves to be employed and in receipt of payment from their employers”, according to the report. Teenagers on zero-hours contracts could therefore be classed as being in a positive destination.
Responding to the figures, education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said that Curriculum for Excellence was “clearly helping to prepare young people for their futures during a crucial stage of their lives” and schools were “continuing to make progress” closing the attainment gap.
However, while the figures show the gap narrowed last year in terms of the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas entering a positive destination, it widened when it came to the qualifications young people were leaving school with.
Last year, around three-quarters of school leavers from the most deprived areas (76.4 per cent) left with one or more awards at SCQF level 5 (National 5 or equivalent) or better. For those school leavers from the least deprived areas that figure was 95.5 per cent, resulting in an attainment gap of 19.1 percentage points in 2021-22, compared to a gap of 18.2 percentage points the previous year.
At SCQF level 6 - Higher or equivalent - the attainment gap for one or more awards at this level or better was 37 percentage points in 2021-22, as compared to 34.4 in 2020-21.
Overall, the proportion of school leavers achieving five passes or more at Higher and National 5 level also dropped last year
Some 59.2 per cent of school leavers achieved five or more qualifications at SCQF level 5 or better, down from 62.6 per cent the previous year
Meanwhile, 30.7 per cent of school leavers achieved five qualifications at SCQF level 6 or better, down from 35.3 per cent the previous year. However, the report warns that “care should also be taken when comparing the attainment of 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 school leavers” because of “the different certification methods used in different years”.
Last year, students sat national external exams for the first time since 2019 after they were cancelled for two years in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The report also shows “a larger proportion of S4 and S5 pupils left school during or at the end of 2021-22 than has been seen in recent years”.
Last year 55,237 students left school, an increase from 50,746 in 2020-21 and the largest school leaver cohort since 2009-10.
Almost 60 per cent (59.8 per cent) of 2021-22 school leavers were in S6, down from 63.2 per cent the previous year; 27.7 per cent were S5 leavers (25.6 per cent in 2020-21); and 12.4 per cent were S4 leavers (11.2 per cent in 2020-21). The report said this “may have had an effect on the total attainment”.
