SQA exam results: the attainment gap widens

Annual Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) results data has been published today.

SQA exam results for 2024 have led to overall A-C pass rates for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher dropping across the board when compared with 2023.

At Higher the A-C pass rate was 74.9 per cent this year compared with 77.1 per cent in 2023 (74.8 per cent in 2019).

The disadvantage-related attainment gap widened at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher; the gap is now slightly wider than it was in 2019.

Here are the SQA results headlines so far:  

• Pass rates drop while attainment gap widens
• A big year for vocational qualifications
• SQA highlights issues at Advanced Higher
• Dual entries persist at National 5
• Students receive blank results emails

SQA exam results 2024: 6 key trends

• This year the A-C pass rate at National 5 is 77.2 per cent, compared with 78.8 per cent in 2023 (78.2 per cent in 2019).
• The pass rate at Higher is 74.9 per cent, compared with 77.1 per cent in 2023 (74.8 per cent in 2019).
• And the pass rate at Advanced Higher is 75.3 per cent, compared with 79.8 per cent in 2023 (79.4 per cent in 2019).
• The attainment gap at National 5 is 17.2 percentage points, compared with 15.6 in 2023 (the gap in 2019 was 17 percentage points).
• The attainment gap at Higher is 17.2 percentage points, compared with 16 in 2023 (the gap in 2019 was 16.9 percentage points).
• The attainment gap at Advanced Higher is 15.5 percentage points, compared with 11.5 in 2023 (the gap in 2019 was 13.2 percentage points).

The SQA cautions against comparing this year’s exam results data with data from previous years because of the changes to assessment caused by the pandemic. However, today’s data is, in theory, the most comparable to 2019 - the last year before Covid - since the pandemic hit.

It is also worth noting that last year’s S4 students were in the final year of primary when the first lockdown hit in March 2020 and made the transition to secondary school without the usual support.

Students in S5 last year, meanwhile, missed the final months of their first year in secondary when schools closed in March 2020.

A big year for vocational qualifications

This year is being hailed a record-breaking year for achievement of vocational qualifications. According to the SQA, the total of National Progression Awards (see graph below), National Certificates, Skills for Work and SQA Awards rose by 24.8 per cent on last year, to 90,035.

The SQA said the increasing breadth of qualifications had clearly captured the imagination of learners across Scotland, including in areas such as mental health and wellbeing, computer games development, sports and fitness, employability, personal finance and modern languages.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth said Scottish students now had “a much wider range of choice than ever before”.

EIS teaching union general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The significant rise in the achievement of vocational qualifications is welcome and reflects an appetite among many students for a senior phase which is more flexible and tailored to their individual needs and interests - whether they aspire to continue their learning at college, university or in the world of work.”

But Ms Bradley also called for “substantial additional investment in Scottish education” so that “all young people receive the support they need and  deserve”.

SQA highlights issues at Advanced Higher

At a briefing for journalists today, Fiona Robertson, chief executive at the SQA, highlighted the variability in Advanced Higher results, in particular.

Attainment at Higher and National 5 was described by the SQA as being “similar to pre-pandemic levels” but at Advanced Higher - where there has been a bigger drop in the A-C pass rate (down 4.1 percentage points on 2019) and a more significant widening of the attainment gap (it has increased by 2.3 percentage points on 2019) - attainment was described as being “below pre-pandemic levels”.

Ms Robertson said there had been an increase in the number of learners taking Advanced Higher qualifications, with a rise of more than 18 per cent since 2019, to 16,455.

It was suggested that the broader range of learners taking Advanced Higher was one factor in the “wider spread of attainment at Advanced Higher”.

• Also today: Higher grade boundaries by subject
• Related: How big is the gap in SQA results around Scotland?
• Reform: SQA should cease to exist in 2025 - but what will change?

Dual entries persist at National 5

At National 5, meanwhile, the SQA continued to highlight the high proportion of students being presented for both National 5 and National 4.

In 2024 dual entries were 30,380, or 9.3 per cent of entries at National 5; last year 30,530 entries at National 5 were also entered for National 4, equal to 9.5 per cent of National 5 entries.

In January Ms Gilruth wrote to education directors calling for the practice to end, barring “a very limited number of exceptional circumstances”.

The figures show that this intervention has had minimal impact this year.

In her chief examiner’s report, Ms Robertson said: “Although dual entries are down by around 1,200 on 2023, levels remain significantly above pre-pandemic levels, and they continue to impact on attainment.”

The 2023-24 school year marked the first time since Covid that students had been required to complete the coursework aspect of all National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications.

Students get blank results emails

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland this morning, Ms Gilruth described it as “a back-to-normal approach this year for the first time since lockdown”.

Results day, however, got off to a rocky and stressful start for some, with reports of some 7,000 students affected by blank exam-results emails. The SQA said that the “vast majority” of learners had received their results as expected; around 145,000 students had been due to received results today.

This morning Ms Robertson told journalists there had been “a technical issue” and results had not been included in the emails sent out by the SQA but this had been “resolved swiftly” - and that most students who opt to receive their results electronically sign up for the text message service. She also highlighted that all students receive a certificate in the post.

Ms Gilruth congratulated Scottish students for their resilience - and thanked teachers for supporting them.

She said the education system was still in recovery from the pandemic and that had “undoubtedly...contributed to some of the variability we have seen in results this year, particularly with the full return to qualifications requirements for the first time since the pandemic”.

However, she also highlighted the “wide degree of variation in results between our 32 local authorities”. At Higher, for example, while the overall A-C pass rate is 74.9 per cent, this varies from between 65.8 per cent in Angus and 84.9 per cent in East Renfrewshire.

Ms Gilruth said she would be meeting with all local authority directors of education, SQA chief executive Ms Robertson and interim chief education inspector Janie McManus “to drive the improvements we all want to see”.

Students who haven’t received their results by text, email or post should contact their school or college for help.

If there is anything missing or wrong with their certificate, they should call the SQA Candidate Advice Line on 0345 279 1000.

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