The exams pass rate in Scotland has fallen for the second successive year after the grading system became stricter after the Covid pandemic.
More than 144,000 school students received their National, Higher and Advanced Higher exam grades on Tuesday, with pass rates for Highers falling from 78.9% last year to 77.1%.
Even so, this year’s results were better than in 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic led to extensive changes in the grading of exams, including teacher-led grading, a lighter workload and a heavy emphasis on extenuating circumstances. Those changes resulted in pass rates soaring in 2020 and 2021.
Unlike exam authorities in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Qualifications Authority had kept some of those modifications in this year’s grading system, which helped lift Higher passes above the 74.8% pass rate in 2019, with 32.8% getting A grades this year.
Fiona Robertson, the SQA’s chief examining officer, said this “sensitive approach” to marking was justified, as it gave students “the best chance of performing to the best of their abilities”.
“This year does not mark a return to normal for learners and educators,” she said. “But it marks another significant and positive step on the path back to normal awarding, following the years of disruption to learning and teaching caused by the pandemic.”
There was a similar effect for National 5s, the Scottish exams equivalent to GCSEs in England, with an overall pass rate of 78.7% this year compared with 78.2% in 2019.
Pass rates for pupils from Scotland’s most deprived neighbourhoods, and for children with disabilities, also continued to improve. Although the gap with pupils from the most well-off areas remained significant, it shrank slightly compared with 2019.
For pupils in the poorest 20%, the overall National 5 pass rate this year stood at 70.8%, which was two percentage points higher than in 2019, with 25.7% achieving A grades, 4.6 points more than in 2019.
But for those in the wealthiest 20% of neighbourhoods, the overall pass rate stood at 86.4%, up by 0.6 points on 2019, while 52% of those achieved A grades, 3.3 points up on 2019.
The overall gap in A-grade passes between the two demographics shrank from 27.6 points in 2019 to 26.3 points this year.
There was a similar trend for overall passes in Higher exams, with the gap in performance between this year and 2019 shrinking by 0.9 points. However, that trend went into reverse for A grades – the grades needed for the most competitive university courses. Here the proportion of wealthier pupils getting As at Higher grew by 1.5 points.
Jenny Gilruth, the Scottish education secretary, said there was “much to celebrate” in this year’s results, adding that additional money would be spent on closing the attainment gap.
“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 £1bn in the Scottish attainment challenge during this parliamentary term,” she said.
Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson, congratulated successful pupils but said the attainment gap remained significant and unacceptable.
For children of Pakistani or African, black and Caribbean background, the rates of progress had stalled – overall pass rates for both groups at National 5 fell slightly compared with 2019, although A grades figures jumped markedly, by approximately 5 points.
“The data published this morning shows that the poverty-related attainment gap is still persisting across subjects and that pupils from more deprived backgrounds continue to be failed,” Duncan-Glancy said.
“The fact is that after over a decade and a half of SNP rule, progress on tackling the attainment gap for people from deprived backgrounds, people with ASN [additional support needs] and minorities is stalling.”
