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Social Focus on Urban Rural Scotland 2003

chapter three: Primary and Secondary Education

The provision of a school system that enables all children and young people from all areas of Scotland to maximise their educational potential is a key priority for the Scottish Executive. The need to ensure appropriate learning opportunities across the country is vital to the development of a skilled and flexible workforce, a reduction in the inequality of opportunity through an individual's lifetime and the enhancement of a person's ability to seize opportunities as they arise. Attempting to meet this objective is a significant and costly undertaking. Educational expenditure by the Scottish Executive over 2001/02 was just over 3 billion and this is expected to increase to 3.3 billion over 2002/03.

The education system across Scotland includes both private and public provision and covers educational establishments from pre-school through to Universities and higher education. This chapter concentrates on the period of compulsory education in the public sector and provides an interesting insight into the differences and similarities between schools across the many varied parts of Scotland.

Across Scotland, schools vary significantly in size and number. As one might expect primary schools in urban areas are considerably larger than those in remote and accessible rural areas. In secondary schools the variation is less pronounced except for those in the remote rural areas, where the average school size is less than a quarter of the size of the average Scottish secondary school. Attainment across Scotland schools varies between and within the various urban and rural areas. The broad conclusion is that attainment in remote and accessible rural primary schools is slightly higher than in other schools and that any urban/rural link is most noticeable in writing. For pupils in secondary schools, attainment during S4 appears highest in remote rural schools and lowest in schools in large urban areas.

Another key difference between pupils across Scotland is leaver destinations. Pupils in the most rural areas of Scotland are considerably more likely to go into employment or higher education than pupils from other areas. It however clear that on average across Scotland over 50 per cent of leavers go onto higher or further education.

The information presented in this chapter by area is based on the location of the school and therefore it is possible that some pupils included in the analyses actually live in areas different to that of the school. The work of the ScotXED project which will make available data based on the location of a pupil's home address will overcome this problem in the future.

Teachers, schools and pupils

Everybody between the ages of 5 and 16 years of age has the right to an education provided by the state, and there is also a commitment to provide pre-school places for 3 and 4 year olds. This is clearly a substantial and significant obligation and in order to meet this commitment across the whole of Scotland over 2,650 schools are attended by just under 737,000 pupils who are taught by just under 53,000 full and part time teachers.

These schools are spread out across the country, with obvious clustering in areas of high population. Chart 3.1 shows that whilst over 150,000 pupils attended primary schools in the large urban areas, only 12,000 pupils attend primary schools in remote small towns. The pattern is similar for secondary school pupils with over 112,000 pupils attending schools in the large urban areas and less than 10,500 attending schools in remote rural areas.

Source: Education Department of the Scottish Executive

The number of schools across the six areas of Scotland is linked to both the location and pupil numbers. In September 2001, over 1,100 primary schools were located in the large and other urban areas of Scotland. These schools were attended by almost 285,000 pupils. However only 22,200 pupils attend the 413 primary schools located in remote rural area, and just over 53,300 pupils attend 521 primary schools in accessible rural areas. Looking at secondary schools, in the large and other urban areas just under 220,000 pupils attend 232 schools, however the 51 Secondary schools in remote rural areas are only attended by 10,300 pupils.

Table 3.2 shows the relatively similar numbers of pupils per school across the urban and small accessible towns for both primary and secondary schools. It is clear as one might expect that schools in remote rural areas have considerably fewer numbers of pupils and teachers than other schools across Scotland.

Considering Primary schools separately, it is clear that on average the number of teachers per school, and pupils per school are similar across urban areas and towns, whereas in rural areas schools are considerably smaller. In secondary schools a similar pattern occurs, although the schools in accessible rural areas are more similar in terms of pupil and teacher numbers to urban and small town than those schools in remote rural areas.

In the large urban areas the average primary school teacher is aged 42 years 4 months. As schools become more rural, the average age of the teachers increases, so that for those teachers in the remote rural primary schools the average age is 1 year 8 months older. For teachers in secondary schools, the average age fluctuates by 6 months across the six locations, with the average age in secondary school in the large urban areas being the same as in the remote rural schools (43 years 6 months).

Attainment at primary school

Scotland's publicly funded primary schools present a wide curriculum including mathematics, English, foreign languages, environmental studies, religious and moral education, health, personal and social develop-ment, expressive arts (physical education and music) and information and communications technology. In Scotland's primary schools the development of pupils is supported by national tests that are used to confirm that a pupil has reached a particular national attainment level A-F. These tests are selected by teachers from a catalogue and taken by pupils as and when they are considered by their teacher to be at the required level. National guidelines are provided as an indication of by when the various levels should have been attained, but this will vary between pupils depending on their personal circumstances. The National 5-14 guidelines suggest across Scotland almost all pupils (90 per cent) should have attained level A by the end of P3, most (75 per cent) should attain level B by end P4, most (75 per cent) should attain level D by end P7 and most (75 per cent) should attain level E by the end of S2.

A useful assessment of attainment can be made by considering the percentage of pupils across the school who have attained the national levels in reading, writing and maths by the recommended stages. A broad expectation is that on average around 80 per cent of a school's pupils should be attaining the national levels by the suggested stages.

The level of attainment differs by subject, stage and school. For example by the end of P3, over 95 per cent of pupils across Scotland have attained at least level A in maths, compared to only 85 per cent and 87 per cent in writing and reading respectively. However, by the end of P7, less than 69 per cent of P7 pupils attain at least level D in maths, less than 60 per cent reach the required level in writing, but 72 per cent attain at least level D in reading.

It is clear that on average, attainment in writing is lower than in reading and maths and there is also evidence to support the claim that on average attainment in accessible and remote rural primary schools is higher than in schools across other parts of Scotland. There would also appear to a gradient running through the attainment in writing from urban - lowest attainment - through to remote rural - highest attainment. However in reading and maths, the distinction is less clear.

Source: Education Department of the Scottish Executive
Note: Y-axis does not start at zero The percentages are based on numbers in P3, P4, P6 and P7

Attainment at secondary school

Secondary schools across Scotland provide a varied curriculum based around a common core. Pupils in S1 and S2 continue to build on their learning from primary schools by following the National 5-14 system and then they move onto the National Qualifications framework which provides for the range of abilities across S3, S4, S5 and S6.

Source: Education Department of the Scottish Executive

Attainment of Level E by the end of S2 across reading, writing and maths is significantly below the proportion expected with the attainment levels in large and other urban areas being lower on average than schools in other areas of the country. As with primary schools attainment in reading is higher than in the other two disciplines. However unlike primary schools there is negligible difference between writing and maths. Attainment in maths also shows a marked gradient between urban - lowest attainment - through to remote rural - highest attainment.

Secondary pupils can now also take a range of national qualifications covering Standard Grade and Access, Intermediate 1, Inter-mediate 2, Higher and Advanced Higher levels. Courses can be mixed and matched according to ability and attainment can be measured by use of a tariff score that enables average scores to be calculated across the range of examinations taken by a pupil. Chart 3.5 shows how the average attainment during S4 varies across different parts of the country. This includes attainment in both Standard Grades and new National Qualifications. It is clear that attainment in large and other urban areas is lower on average than attainment in the more rural parts of Scotland. Pupils attending those schools in the remote rural parts of Scotland achieve, on average 35 more tariff points than those pupils attending schools in the large urban areas. This is the difference between attaining 7 Grade 4 Standard Grades (SCQF level 4) and 7 Grade 5 Standard Grades (SCQF level 3).

Source: Education Department of the Scottish Executive

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