Chamber and committees

Thank you for the invitation to discuss the Scottish attainment challenge this morning.

The committee’s 2022 inquiry into the Scottish attainment challenge and its subsequent report have informed much of our on-going work. My predecessor as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills provided an update on progress back in 2022, as did I when I attended the committee to discuss the issue in 2023. I will take this opportunity to update committee members and to flag my priorities for the future.

The mission of the attainment challenge is to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people who are impacted by poverty, with a focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. I am pleased that we are making progress. For example, last month, we saw in the data on initial leaver destinations for 2023-24 that the poverty-related attainment gap has been reduced by two thirds, or 67 per cent, since 2009-10. We have also recorded record low poverty-related attainment gaps in literacy in our primary schools and in both literacy and numeracy in our secondary schools. I am grateful to school staff for their excellent work in targeting support towards pupils who need it most.

We all want to increase the pace of progress across all ages and stages. The Government’s commitment to the Scottish attainment challenge has been unwavering, as has been demonstrated by our investment of up to £1 billion during this parliamentary session alone. The significance of that investment is not lost on me. That is why we have a comprehensive multiyear evaluation strategy in place, which the committee’s 2022 report looked at. Education Scotland gathers and shares a vast range of data and local information. Over the past year, Government officials and attainment advisers have visited 129 schools to sample pupil equity funding plans in order to see the impact of the programme.

We cannot ignore the lasting impact of the pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis. Within that context, it has been heartening to see schools using their pupil equity fund money and working so creatively to help to support their pupils and families. In schools such as Fair Isle primary school in Fife and Braes high school in Falkirk, PEF has been used to reduce the cost of the school day and to help families access the benefits that they are entitled to and to develop their literacy and numeracy skills, thereby reducing the invidious challenges that are associated with poverty.

However, I cannot ignore the impact of austerity on families who are experiencing poverty. It has increased the number of families living in poverty and presents barriers to young people’s educational experiences and attainment before they even arrive at the school gates. The Government recognises the pressures on household budgets. That is why, in 2025-26, we will continue to allocate more than £3 billion of funding to policies that will help to tackle poverty and the cost of living. However, it disappoints me that schools are having to fight that battle. Our headteachers are having to make choices about funding things like income-maximisation officers, as opposed to direct educational interventions.

Today, I wish to give some comfort to Scotland’s headteachers on the continuation of the Scottish attainment challenge. As I have stated in evidence to the committee previously, I am clear that the Scottish attainment challenge should continue. To that end, the funding will continue through 2026-27. I hope that that confirmation is helpful to local authorities and schools alike, who I know deeply value the central Government’s support for the sector. I welcome the opportunity to discuss that important work with the committee.

I think that we did make progress in that time.

We made progress, but the context, as the committee reflected in its report in 2022, undoubtedly hampered some of that progress. I accept that, and the committee has accepted that as well.

I accept that the progress is not where it should be, and that the context needs to be understood.

I am not going to have you put words in my mouth, convener.

Yes, the programme for government that was written in advance of a global pandemic. I think that you need to reflect that the context has changed, and that is my position. That was actually the committee’s position, back in 2022, when Ms Webber was convener.

We have made progress, but we need to continue the progress that is required. I do not think that there is an MSP in the room who does not support our ambition to close the poverty-related attainment gap.

Yes, but external factors have undoubtedly had an impact on the progress that we have been driving. That does not mean that we should move away from that target and aspiration.

We have been able to drive progress. I am sure that the committee is well acquainted with the achievement of curriculum for excellence levels data that was published in December last year, which showed record improvement in literacy in our primary schools, and showed that the attainment gap has reached record lows between secondary pupils achieving third level in both literacy and numeracy. Levels of literacy and numeracy across primary and secondary schools are at a record high.

I am pleased that the poverty-related gap in outcomes has reduced under this Government since 2009-10 by two thirds—or 67 per cent—for people leaving school and going on to a positive initial destination. That is important, because I was in a school in 2009-10, and young people often left school without qualifications and without a positive destination.

We have completely changed how schools support our young people through a qualifications framework and a targeted focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. To put it bluntly, historically many of those young people might have left school without qualifications. That was not acceptable to the Government, and I do not think that it would be acceptable to any political party.

I am sure that you can attribute that, convener.

Are there specific points of blame that you would like to address with me?