Poverty-related Higher attainment gap up from last year but below 2019 level

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Higher attainment gap between the most and least deprived areas has grown wider since last year, while remaining below pre-pandemic levels.Tuesday’s exam results figures show the gap in attainment of A to C grades between the fifth most-deprived and fifth least-deprived areas stood at 16 percentage points for 2023.This has risen from 2022’s figure of 14.9 percentage points.But it is below the last pre-pandemic level in 2019, when there was a gap of 16.9 percentage points.There was a similar trend for the National 5 attainment gap, with it becoming smaller from last year while remaining narrower than the 2019 level.The gap for Advanced Highers has grown narrower than 2019.This stood at 13.2 percentage points in 2019, remaining at 13.2 in 2022 before falling to 11.5 in 2023.The Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) noted that there have been different approaches to awarding of exam results in the years since 2019, urging caution in drawing conclusions about education performance over this period.The deprivation areas are determined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), which divides the country into five groups.Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said that across the three levels, the attainment gap was lower than pre-pandemic.She said: “While we know that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds, these results show that the gap in attainment levels between the least and most deprived areas remains narrower than it was in 2019.“We are determined to build on the progress that has been made and we are investing a record £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge during this parliamentary term.”Scottish Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy