Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels: 2021/22

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2021/22

13th December 2022

This statistical publication:

• Provides information on national performance of school pupils in the literacy organisers (i.e. reading, writing, and listening and talking) and numeracy.
• Reports on the percentage of pupils who have achieved the expected Curriculum for Excellence level in these organisers, based on teachers' professional judgements.
• Covers all Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) and Secondary 3 (S3) pupils in publicly funded mainstream schools, and all pupils based in publicly funded special schools/units.

Data for secondary school pupils and special school pupils were not collected in 2020/21 due to other pressures on these schools including implementation of the SQA National Qualifications Alternative Certification Model which was used to award National 5s, Highers and Advanced Highers in 2021.

In 2019/20, the data were not collected for any pupils due to difficulties in collecting data whilst schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (for more information see Section 1.3).

With this in mind, for primary school pupils comparisons in this publication are typically made between the latest 2021/22 data and 2020/21 data (and to earlier years where appropriate). For secondary school (S3) pupils, comparisons are made between 2021/22 and 2018/19 - the last year for which S3 data were collected.

Pupils' achievement of CfE levels in 2020/21 were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It is likely that 2021/22 results may also be affected by the ongoing impact of the pandemic on young people's learning. This should be kept in mind when making comparisons over time.

Full results are available from the supplementary tables.

School level results (where available) are accessible from the School Information Dashboard.

Trend

The percentage of primary school pupils achieving the expected CfE levels has increased in 2021/22 across all organisers and stages, as compared to 2020/21. However, the expected CfE levels were lower than in 2018/19 across almost all stages and organisers.

Female pupils outperform male pupils across most stages and organisers.

Across all stages and organisers the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level was lower for pupils with an Additional Support Need than those without.

Across most stages and organisers the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level was lower for pupils who have English as an Additional Language than for pupils who do not.

The attainment gap between school pupils in the most and least deprived areas, 2016/17 to 2021/22.