Scottish schooling used to be the envy of the world, but recently its reputation has taken a knock. The latest OECD world rankings on scores in maths, reading and science show that Scotland’s 15-year-olds recorded their worst- ever performance. The country fell from “above average” in reading and science to “average”, with English pupils outperforming Scottish children in science.
The Sutton Trust Foundation has examined the figures closely and found a noticeable gap between the performance of children from poorer families compared to their better-off peers. This prompted Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell to declare: “If you are a bright child living in a poorer area in Scotland, you are two years behind the same child living in a more affluent area.”
The Scottish Government got the message.
