Scotland's gap between richest and poorest pupils remains above pre-pandemic levels

dailyrecord.co.uk:

New figures released today show Scotland's poverty-related education attainment gap remains well above pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made it one of her key aims to reduce the gap between the most and least well off pupils across the country.The latest Curriculum for Excellence for primaries one, four and seven and S3 pupils breaks achievement down into four levels, spread across literacy, numeracy, listening and talking, writing and reading.In all of these indicators, the poverty-related gap for S3 pupils earning the third level or better has widened since 2018-19 - the last available figures for secondary schools.Scottish Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra branded the latest statistics "damning", while he called for Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville to address the problem as a matter of urgency.For reading, the gap has widened from 11.5 per cent to 14.2 per cent between 2018-19 and 2021-22, from 12.2 per cent to 15.1 per cent in writing, from 10 per cent to 12.7 per cent in listening and talks, 13.8 per cent to 16.3 per cent in literacy and 13.5 per cent to 15 per cent in numeracy.

On average, the gap went from 12.2 per cent to 14.7 per cent for S3 pupils achieving the third level in these metrics.The gap for S3 pupils achieving the fourth and highest level in these markers all fell, but remained around the 30 per cent mark, with the most well off pupils showing a marked difference in achievement compared to their more deprived counterparts.On average, the attainment gap remains higher than before covid in Scotland's primary schools.

The gap has risen from 17.34 per cent in 2018-19 to 18.22 per cent in 2021-22 in primaries one, four and seven, according to analysis of