New statistics on qualifications taken by students in Scotland in 2017-18 reveal some big swings in uptake at Higher level.
Some of the changes in the Scottish Qualifications Authority statistics between 2016-17 and 2017-18 include:
On the way down
Latin: Down 21 per cent (from 286 to 226 entries)
Engineering science: Down 10 per cent (from 1,125 to 1,104 entries)
Physics: Down 8 per cent (from 8,956 to 8,280, while biology and chemistry remained relatively stable)
Computing science: Down 8 per cent (from 4,476 to 4,099)
French: Down 4 per cent (from 3,918 to 3,780 entries, and from 4,581 entries in 2016)
Spanish: Down marginally after years of increasing popularity (from 2,809 to 2,795 entries)
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On the way up
Fashion and textile technology: Up 31 per cent (from 282 to 370 entries)
Politics: Up 24 per cent (from 982 to 1,214 entries)
Chinese languages: Up 18 per cent (from 129 to 152 entries)
Dance: Up 8 per cent (from 427 to 461 entries)
Childcare development: Up 7 per cent (from 713 to 766 entries)
OVERALL ENTRIES: Down 1 per cent (from 194,804 to 191,952)
