Attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living: summary statistics

Chapter 3: Attainment

• 61.2 per cent of leavers left with one or more pass at SCQF Level 6 or better - down slightly from 61.7 per cent for 2015/16.
• 2.0 per cent of school leavers attained no passes at SCQF Level 3 or better - the same as 2015/16.
• 96.5 per cent of leavers attained literacy at SCQF Level 3 or above - the same as 2015/16.
• Similarly 96.3 per cent of leavers attained numeracy at this level - up slightly from 2015/16 (96.1 per cent).

3.1 SCQF Framework & National Qualifications

The diagram below illustrates the SQA qualifications and awards that are included in this report. See background note 7.2.1 for more information.

3.2 Attainment of school leavers

Table 4 shows that 36.8 per cent of 2016/17 school leavers left with one or more passes at SCQF Levels 3 to 5 as their highest qualification. A small proportion (2.0 per cent) of school leavers attained no passes at SCQF Level 3 or better, while 61.2 per cent left with one or more passes at Higher or Advanced Higher (SCQF Levels 6 or 7).

Table 4: Percentage of school leavers by highest SCQF Level achieved, 2012/13 to 2016/17

	Percentage
SCQF Level	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
No passes at SCQF 3 or better	1.5	1.7	2.1	2.0	2.0
SCQF Level 3	2.2	2.0	1.7	1.7	1.7
SCQF Level 4	13.6	12.0	11.0	10.7	10.2
SCQF Level 5	26.9	26.2	24.9	23.9	24.9
SCQF Level 6	38.1	39.8	41.4	42.6	41.9
SCQF Level 7	17.6	18.3	18.8	19.1	19.3
All leavers	51,647	51,416	52,491	52,305	51,300

Table 5 shows information on the attainment of leavers at each SCQF Level or better. A time series from 2009/10 to 2016/17 can be found in the supplementary tables at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/Pub-SS-ALM

Table 5: Leaver attainment by SCQF Level or better and number of passes achieved, percentage of leavers, 2016/17

	Percentage
SCQF Level	1 pass or more	2 passes or more	3 passes or more	4 passes or more	5 passes or more	6 passes or more	7 passes or more
3 or better	98.0	96.6	94.9	93.0	89.9	83.9	70.3
4 or better	96.3	94.4	92.5	90.0	86.3	80.2	67.1
5 or better	86.1	78.8	72.0	64.6	56.7	48.0	37.6
6 or better	61.2	51.6	44.2	37.3	29.9	19.4	9.3
7	19.3	8.0	2.7	0.2	*	*	-

3.3 School leaver attainment by pupil characteristics

Table 6 shows school leaver attainment by pupil characteristic such as gender and ethnicity. It shows that girls are continuing to outperform boys at SCQF Levels 4 to 6. Pupils recorded as Asian-Chinese continue to have the highest level of achievement, as 90.8 per cent achieved one or more pass at SCQF Level 6 or better.

Table 6 also shows that the percentage of all leavers achieving one or more pass at SCQF Level 4 or better has remained stable at 96.3 per cent; the percentage of leavers that have achieved a pass at SCQF Level 5 has increased slightly (from 85.6 to 86.1 per cent) and, at SCQF Level 6, decreased slightly (from 61.7 to 61.2 per cent).

Table 6: Percentage of school leavers by attainment at SCQF Level 4 to 6, by pupil characteristic, 2015/16 and 2016/17

	Percentage
	2015/16			2016/17
	1 or more at SCQF Level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 6 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 6 or better
Gender
Male	95.9	83.9	56.3	95.9	84.1	55.5
Female	96.8	87.5	67.3	96.7	88.2	67.2
Ethnicity1
White - Scottish	96.3	85.4	61.1	96.3	85.8	60.5
White - non-Scottish	96.1	85.6	62.3	95.4	86.2	61.8
Mixed or multiple ethnic groups	96.4	88.9	72.2	97.3	90.2	71.8
Asian - Indian	98.7	94.2	76.5	99.2	94.5	79.5
Asian - Pakistani	99.0	92.1	73.2	98.5	93.5	75.0
Asian - Chinese	99.5	96.4	91.8	99.5	98.9	90.8
Asian - Other	97.8	92.2	76.9	98.2	93.6	77.6
African/ Black/ Caribbean2	99.7	95.4	76.6	97.9	94.8	75.9
All other categories3	94.3	82.9	61.7	95.8	86.5	66.2
Not Disclosed/Not known	93.6	79.9	55.7	92.0	74.5	50.6
Urban/Rural
Large Urban Areas	96.1	85.4	62.1	95.9	86.1	62.2
Other Urban Areas	96.2	84.9	60.2	96.0	84.6	58.7
Accessible Small Towns	96.8	86.9	64.2	96.8	87.1	63.7
Remote Small Towns	96.1	86.2	60.8	96.0	85.3	57.3
Accessible Rural	97.1	87.4	65.5	97.4	88.6	64.3
Remote Rural	97.2	89.5	65.2	97.4	90.0	65.0
SIMD4
0-20% (Most Deprived)	92.8	74.4	42.7	92.8	75.5	43.0
20-40%	95.4	81.4	52.2	95.5	82.2	52.4
40-60%	96.8	86.7	62.2	97.2	88.0	62.0
60-80%	97.8	91.4	71.1	97.7	91.3	70.5
80-100% (Least Deprived)	98.8	94.7	81.2	98.7	94.8	80.6
Percentage point gap	6.1	20.3	38.5	5.9	19.3	37.6
Additional Support Needs5
ASN	89.9	67.6	36.6	90.4	69.1	36.5
No ASN	98.2	91.0	69.1	98.4	92.0	69.8
All Leavers	96.3	85.6	61.7	96.3	86.1	61.2

1. The categories used to collect ethnicity and national identity in the 2011 pupil census to agree with the categories used in the main population census. Some categories have been grouped together due to small numbers. Some categories contain between 100-200 leavers.
2. For 2015/16 and 2016/17 the 'African/ Black/ Caribbean' category includes 'African', 'African - Other', and 'Caribbean or Black' categories.
3. For 2015/16 and 2016/17, 'All other categories' includes 'Other - other' and 'Other - Arab'.
4. Based on SIMD 2012 for 2015/16 and SIMD 2016 for 2016/17. More information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SIMD.
5. Pupils who have a CSP, IEP, Child's Plan are assessed or declared disabled or have another need.

3.4 School leaver attainment by SIMD

In 2017 the Scottish Government consulted on proposals for measuring the poverty related attainment gap and milestones towards closing it; focusing on the impact of the education system as a whole and using a range of measures that reflect key stages of the learner journey and the breadth of issues that can impact on attainment. The outcome was a basket of 11 key measures (supported by 15 sub-measures), three of which are based on school leaver attainment, namely:

• The proportion of leavers attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 4 or above
• The proportion of leavers attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 5 or above
• The proportion of leavers attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 6 or above

Chart 3: Percentage of school leavers by attainment at SCQF Level 4 to 6, by SIMD¹ quintile, 2015/16 and 2016/17

1. Based on SIMD 2012 for 2015/16 and SIMD 2016 for 2016/17.

Chart 4 shows that the proportion of leavers attaining one or more pass at SCQF Level 5 has increased for both leavers from the most deprived areas and the least deprived areas; this has led to a reduction in the gap from 20.3 to 19.3 percentage points.

With respect to attainment at SCQF Level 4, the gap has reduced due to a decrease in the proportion of leavers from least deprived areas attaining one or more pass at SCQF Level 4. At SCQF Level 6, the gap has reduced due to a decrease in the proportion of leavers from least deprived areas attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 6 and an increase for most deprived leavers.

3.5 Literacy and numeracy

A range of courses are included in the measure of literacy and numeracy attainment, the full range is set out in background note 7.2.1.

Chart 5 shows the percentage of 2016/17 leavers attaining literacy and numeracy at SCQF Levels 3 to 5 or above. At SCQF Level 3 or above, 96.5 per cent of leavers attained literacy; 96.3 per cent of leavers attained numeracy at this level. At SCQF Levels 4 and 5, more leavers attain literacy skills at these levels than numeracy skills; 94.4 per cent of leavers attained literacy at SCQF Level 4 or better whilst 90.7 per cent attain numeracy skills at SCQF Level 4 or better. Similarly, 80.8 per cent of leavers attaining literacy at SCQF Level 5 or above, whilst 68.8 per cent attain this level in numeracy.

Chart 4: Percentage of leavers attaining SCQF Levels 3 to 5 in literacy and numeracy, 2016/17

Table 7: Leaver attainment in literacy and numeracy by SCQF Level, percentage of leavers, 2013/14 to 2016/17^a

	Percentage
	Literacy				Numeracy
SCQF Level	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
3 or better	96.8	96.5	96.5	96.5	96.7	96.3	96.1	96.3
4 or better	93.3	93.9	94.1	94.4	83.8	88.1	89.9	90.7
5 or better	70.1	74.6	79.0	80.8	59.5	62.7	66.9	68.8

a. Caution should be exercised when making comparisons over time. See background note 7.2.1.