Poverty attainment gap at record level as pandemic impacts education

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Pupils from the poorest backgrounds have been worst affected during the coronavirus pandemic as Curriculum for Excellence education statistics reveal achievement fell at every level.

Teacher judgments of pupils’ reading, writing, maths and their listening and talking abilities indicate a drop in performance across all of P1, P4 and P7 stages.

Meanwhile, the attainment gap between pupils from the most and least deprived areas increased to the highest level on record, with the largest ever differences in primary pupils achieving the expected levels in literacy and numeracy.

The latest attainment figures for literacy reveal 80.7% of primary pupils in the most affluent areas are at or above the expected standard, compared to 56% of those from the poorest backgrounds.

With the attainment levels falling by three percentage points for the most well off and 7.1 percentage points for the most deprived since 2018-19, the gap now stands at 24.7 percentage points.

Numeracy achievement has fallen from 88.5% and 77.1% respectively before the pandemic to 86.5% and 65%, leaving an attainment gap of more than 21 percentage points, up from 16.8 in 2018-19.

The figures, published by the Scottish Government, show that a quarter of primary school pupils (25%) did not achieve the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level of reading or numeracy, while three in ten (30%)were not at the required writing standard.

Combined figures for P1, P4 and P7 show the percentage of pupils achieving the expected CfE levels have fallen by five percentage points in reading since 2018-19, six percentage points in both writing and literacy, and four percentage points in numeracy and listening and talking,

Citing the disruption to education caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the report states that the decreases are “generally larger than pervious changes at national level” and adds: “Compared to 2018-19 the percentage of pupils achieving the expected CfE levels in 2020-21 have decreased across all organisers and all stages.”

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Unfortunately, the disruption caused by Covid-19 presented serious challenges for learners not just in Scotland but internationally.

“Improving educational outcomes is at the heart of our education recovery work, which is continuing at pace. This includes recruiting 3,500 additional teachers and 500 support staff over this parliamentary term.

“We also continue to press on with our mission to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, backed by a record £1 billion investment. Later today, in a statement to Parliament, I will highlight our new and ongoing work to support numeracy and literacy in our schools.”

Scottish Labour’s Education spokesperson Michael Marra said: “These devastating figures reveal the true scale of the challenge we are up against.

“The pandemic has wreaked havoc with education, and sadly it is once again the poorest kids who have been hit the hardest.

“This must be a wake-up call – we have no option but to be ambitious right now.

“We urgently need a real plan to get schools back on track and close Scotland’s shameful attainment gap once and for all.

“Labour have set out ambitious plans for an education recovery, and I hope the SNP will work with us to make them a reality.”

Scottish Conservative education spokesman Oliver Mundell said: “These shocking results reveal the brutal impact on young people of Covid which has been heightened by years of SNP failure.

“Scotland’s schools came into the pandemic unprepared after 14 years of the SNP letting standards slip.

“The double whammy of Covid and the SNP’s botched reforms have sent the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils spiralling to its worst-ever level.

“These grim statistics show that despite the best efforts of teachers and parents, pupils across Scotland are not reaching the expected levels of attainment in reading, writing, numeracy, literacy and listening and talking.

“Dreadful results on this scale should shame Nicola Sturgeon She promised to close the attainment gap but instead, it’s wider than ever. Education has never been her top priority and it shows.

“The SNP Government have let down a generation of children and young people.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie said: “Education was meant to be Nicola Sturgeon’s top priority but the government barely made a dent in the attainment gap pre-pandemic. Now the figures have crashed. Instead of closing the attainment gap its wider than ever.

“The SNP can’t just blame the pandemic as the attainment gap was yawning before we’d even heard of Covid 19.

“The Scottish Government failed to get laptops out to tens of thousands of children who needed them fast. Now it is failing to properly employ thousands of qualified teachers who should be spending every day helping children catch-up. No wonder these statistics are devastating.

“Children have missed out on so much. The disruption has been unprecedented so the response should be too. Instead, the government has offered too little too late. Teachers and parents are struggling to see any difference in what’s on offer in our schools.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats had to work hard to persuade ministers to strengthen the pupil premium and hire more teachers. Now we need to see more in-class support, a guarantee of a job for every qualified teacher, premiums to get the best teachers to the schools in greatest need and a targeted new support programme for senior pupils. This can’t wait.”

Other education statistics released on Tuesday show there were a total of 704,723 pupils in state schools during the last academic year, up by 2,525 from 2020. Of those 390,313 were in primary and 306,811 in secondary schools, as well as 7,599 in special education settings.

Class size increased marginally to an average of 23.2 pupils, up from 23.1 the previous year and there was an increase of 885 teachers from 2020, taking the total number employed in the public sector to 54,285.