Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels: 2022/23

Chapter 2: Achievement of CfE Levels at Scotland level

Key Findings

• The percentage of primary school pupils achieving the expected CfE levels in 2022/23 was higher than in 2021/22, for all primary school stages and across all the organisers, with increases generally in the range of one to two percentage points.
• For many organisers and stages, particularly at P7, the proportions of primary school pupils achieving the expected levels have risen up to or beyond 2018/19 (pre-pandemic) levels. However there remain some cases where 2022/23 figures are slightly below those of 2018/19.
• For P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined, the proportion achieving the expected level in literacy is the highest on record. This is also true for numeracy.
• For S3 pupils, the proportions achieving Third Level or better are higher than in 2021/22 across all organisers typically by around one to two percentage points. They are similar to, or slightly lower than in 2018/19.
• The proportions of S3 pupils achieving Fourth Level have increased sharply in 2022/23 and are higher than in any previous year across all organisers.

2.1 Achievement of CfE Levels at Scotland level - primary stages

The percentages of primary school pupils achieving the expected CfE levels in 2022/23 have increased across all stages and organisers compared to 2021/22. These increases were generally in the range of one to two percentage points. They follow on from increases of between around two and four percentage points between 2020/21 and 2021/22.

These figures represent a further recovery following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and for a number of organisers and stages the proportions of primary school pupils achieving the expected levels have risen above those of 2018/19 – the last data collected before the pandemic began.

For P7 pupils the proportions achieving Second Level in 2022/23 are higher (by between one and two percentage points) than they were in 2018/19 across all organisers. For P1 and P4 pupils the proportions achieving the expected level were generally the same or slightly below those in 2018/19 although P4 listening & talking has risen above the 2018/19 level.

Looking at P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined, more than seven in ten (73 per cent) achieved the expected CfE Level for literacy in 2022/23. This is the highest figure on record and compares to 71 per cent in 2021/22, to 67 per cent in 2020/21 and to 72 per cent in 2018/19.

In numeracy, four-fifths (80 per cent) of primary school pupils (P1, P4 and P7 combined) achieved the expected CfE levels in 2022/23. This is again higher than in any previous year and compares to 78 per cent in 2021/22, to 75 per cent in 2020/21 and to 79 per cent in 2018/19.

As in previous years, in 2022/23 the proportion of pupils achieving the expected CfE level across each primary school stage (P1, P4 and P7) was highest in listening and talking, and lowest in writing. For listening and talking, 87 per cent of pupils in each of P1, P4 and P7 achieved the expected CfE level. Meanwhile for writing, 78 per cent of P1 pupils, 72 per cent of P4 pupils and 75 per cent of P7 pupils achieved the expected level.

2.2 Achievement of CfE Levels at Scotland level - S3 stage

Around nine out of ten S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better in each of the literacy organisers in 2022/23: reading (90 per cent), writing (89 per cent) and listening and talking (91 per cent). For literacy as a whole, 88 per cent of S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better whilst for numeracy 90 per cent achieved this level. In each case this was higher than in 2021/22 by up to two percentage points. Compared to 2018/19 the proportions were the same or slightly lower. Data for S3 pupils were not collected in 2020/21 (or in 2019/20).

In 2022/23, the percentage of S3 pupils achieving Fourth Level was higher than in in any previous year. For the literacy organisers (reading, writing and listening and talking) the proportions of pupils achieving Fourth Level have grown by between seven and eight percentage points since 2021/22 and were also higher than in 2018/19, by between six and seven percentage points. For numeracy the proportion achieving Fourth Level in 2022/23 was higher than in both 2021/22 and 2018/19 by around four percentage points.

Table 1 shows the proportions of pupils achieving the expected CfE levels for all stages and organisers for 2018/19 to 2022/23. The full time series, back to 2016/17 can be found in table 1 of the supplementary tables.