Scotland's attainment gap now wider than before the pandemic

The attainment gap between Scotland's richest and poorest school pupils remains wider than before the pandemic, according to new figures.

Closing this gap - between the level of national qualifications obtained by children from the most affluent and the least affluent areas - has been a Scottish government priority since 2015.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the government had already invested £1.75bn but admitted that the new data showed there was more to do.

The gap worsened for pupils at National 4 level from 7.3% in the previous year to 8% for the 2025 cohort. It was 6.7% before the pandemic in 2018-19. The gap at level 4 is now at its widest since 2011-12.

While the gap between those leavers with one or more qualification at National 5 level reduced slightly since last year, it now stands at 21.4% - greater than 20.2% before the pandemic.

Similarly, figures for pupils leaving with one or more qualification at Higher level or equivalent shows that the difference between most affluent and least has reduced slightly over the year and stands at 37.7%. However, it was 35.8% before the pandemic.

The figures also highlight what young people are doing after they leave school.

The number of pupils going on to university from school increased from the year before and now stands at 42.3%.

However, more than twice as many pupils from the most affluent backgrounds went on to university, compared with those from the poorest backgrounds. The gap between the two cohorts is at its highest since 2016 - at 36%.

Overall, the number of school leavers going on to a positive destination has remained stable at 95.7% - this figure includes pupils going on to college, university, work, training or voluntary work.

Jodie, who is 16, struggled with confidence at school and was "dogging" classes a lot.

She had almost stopped attending school but through a Glasgow City Council project Evip (Enhanced Vocational Inclusion Programme), which combines practical training and one-to-one support, she is now training to be a football coach.

"I feel like going into that programme after leaving school was just such a relief," she told BBC Scotland News.

"You're getting somewhere, you're not just waking up and going 'that's my life over with'.

"The college programme has helped me so much, just getting me out of my bed, making me feel so much better about things."

Nicola Mackenzie, who runs the Glasgow project, said there was increasing recognition that positive post-school pathways did not always run in straight lines.

"Schools are wonderful places that are rich in learning and have fantastic role models for young people but not everyone is able to access that traditional approach or model," she said.

"We can offer young people the chance to do something a bit more practical at college but still linking back in with our colleagues at secondary."

She said this ensured that young people were leaving school with as many qualifications as possible which would help them to have the best opportunity to move into a positive post-school pathway.

"For young people that can mean many things," she said. "It's not always getting five Highers and moving into university.

"A positive post-school destination could be volunteering, it could be attending college to do a further education or higher education course, and for someone like Jodie, a modern apprenticeship, which is such a wonderful way for a young person to still learn but also do that with on-the-job experience."

She added: "There are lots of young people where the school system is not working for various reasons - whether that be social reasons, challenges at home, challenges in the community, maybe missed attendance at school.

"What we offer is the opportunity to work in smaller groups with the support of 'one good adult' who's there to really support, encourage and motivate the young person to be the best that they can be."

Prof John McKendrick from Glasgow Caledonian University co-directs the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit.

He said it was important to applaud different outcomes after school, including constructive employment but said closing the attainment gap was crucial.

"It matters because there is a clear link between attainment at school and what happens after school," he said. "There is clear evidence that if you don't obtain a high level at school you are much less likely to have a positive outcome when you leave school.

"The figures have plateaued for a few years now both in terms of positive destinations and the attainment gap.

"Fundamentally, we have an attainment gap as a result of deep-rooted inequality in society. Worsening absence rates in schools are higher for disadvantaged pupils and make it even harder to narrow the gaps."

He said school-level interventions were important and were making a difference at a local and personal level, but said this could only take it so far.

He added: "If you wanted to put a spin on it you could say holding the line has been positive given all the wider headwinds and not making the gap much wider can be seen as a success, but what you absolutely can't say is that we have made significant strides in the last few years on closing the attainment gap cos that is simply not the case."

The Scottish government said the proportion of Scotland's young people in positive destinations remained at a near record high.

And it highlighted the fact that the proportion of young people leaving school with five or more passes at National Courses and Highers, as well as their equivalent vocational and technical qualifications, had increased over the past year.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said this underlined the strong recovery being seen in education following the pandemic and the importance of the breadth of choice schools offer to young people.

The figures also reveal that the proportion of school leavers achieving one pass or more at level 6 - Highers - or better, ranged from 47.6% in Clackmannanshire to 83.4% in East Renfrewshire - a gap of 35.8%, which demonstrates an increase in the gap between councils on last year.

The Scottish government statistics refer to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels. For parents and pupils SCQF level 4 can refer to National 4, SCQF level 5 is equivalent to Nat 5 and SSCQF level 6 is equivalent to Higher.

The figures also show that 2.3% of pupils who left school had no passes in National Qualifications at level 3, a slight reduction on last year.

Overall, 2.9% of leavers left with their highest qualification being SCQF level 3.

The proportion of those who left school with National Qualifications at Higher or Advanced Higher level increased in 2025, compared with the previous year.

Overall, 38.6% pupils left school with Highers being their top qualification, and 19.8% of pupils left with advanced highers.

The percentage of school leavers who are unemployed three months after leaving school was 4%.