10 years on SNP’s broken attainment promise lies in ruins
Marking ten years since Nicola Sturgeon promised to close the attainment gap, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie has today (Monday 18th August) said that this promise ‘lies in ruins’ and that the SNP have betrayed a whole generation of young people from poorer backgrounds.
In August 2015, Nicola Sturgeon declared that the elimination of the attainment gap was ‘a yardstick by which the people of Scotland can measure our success.’ She promised that the gap would be ‘substantially eliminated’ by 2026.
However, this year’s exam results still show a yawning gap in attainment between those from the wealthiest and poorest backgrounds. The difference in attainment is 16.6% for National 5 qualifications, 12.8% for Higher qualifications and 17.1% for Higher qualifications.
The Scottish Government have a target that students from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland represent 20% of Scottish entrants to full-time first degree courses at university by 2030. However, students from the 20% most deprived areas made up just 16.7% of undergraduate entrants in 2023/23- the same as it was in 2020/21. Based on the rate of progress since 2012/13, it could take up to 12 years to close the remaining gap and meet the target.
Willie Rennie said:
“The SNP’s promise to close the attainment gap lies in ruins. By Nicola Sturgeon’s own yardstick, her party has betrayed a whole generation of young people from poorer backgrounds.
“The miniscule progress that they have made is nowhere near good enough. On the SNP’s watch, Scotland has tumbled down the international rankings, and parents are hugely worried about what that means for their children’s futures.
“In schools, there are lots of issues that need addressed, from behaviour challenges to teachers stuck on supply lists and fundamental problems with the curriculum. But all of them have gotten worse under the SNP.
“We urgently need a plan to drive up education performance and improve outcomes for our young people.”