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6.1 School pupils currently leave school with three main types of qualification; these are Standard Grades, Higher Grades and National Certificate modules. Table 14 shows, for 1997-98, the number of National Certificate modules acquired by school leavers at each level of SCE attainment.
6.2 In 1997-98, 4,116 (7 per cent) pupils left school with no SCE qualifications. However only 2,152 (3 per cent) pupils left with no SCE or National Certificate qualification. About 35,800 (57 per cent) of all pupils who left school in 1997-98 held 5 or more Standard Grade awards @ 1-3 or better, compared with 44 per cent of leavers in 1987-88 (5 or more awards @ 1-3 correspond to the former ASCETT targets at Level 2) Over 80 per cent of school leavers had at least one National Certificate qualification .
6.3 Thirty-two per cent of leavers had gained between 1 and 3 NC modules, 40 per cent had gained between 4 and 11 modules and 11 per cent had gained 12 or more. School leavers whose highest qualification was at Higher Grade generally gained more modules than those leaving with Standard Grades only; larger numbers of modules were more likely to have been gained by those with fewer Higher Grade qualifications.
| Highest SCE qualification by number of National Certificate modules | ||||||||||||||
| for school leavers(1): 1997-98 |
Table 14 |
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|
Number |
Total |
Highest SCE Qualification |
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|
None |
@ 4-7 |
Standard Grades @ 1-3 |
Higher Grades @ A-C |
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|
1 or 2 |
3 or 4 |
5+ |
1 or 2 |
3 or 4 |
5+ |
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| Number | ||||||||||||||
|
Total |
62,483 |
4,116 |
7,422 |
8,926 |
6,257 |
8,189 |
8,692 |
8,064 |
10,817 |
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|
None |
11,290 |
2,152 |
2,369 |
2,063 |
1,028 |
1,266 |
324 |
493 |
1,595 |
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|
1 |
7,918 |
456 |
1,336 |
1,510 |
928 |
1,197 |
336 |
641 |
1,514 |
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|
2 |
6,759 |
923 |
846 |
891 |
546 |
830 |
484 |
761 |
1,478 |
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|
3 |
4,996 |
137 |
503 |
634 |
423 |
593 |
628 |
802 |
1,276 |
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|
4-5 |
8,948 |
140 |
733 |
939 |
749 |
1,091 |
1,460 |
1,736 |
2,100 |
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|
6-8 |
9,964 |
110 |
618 |
988 |
858 |
1,279 |
2,272 |
1,968 |
1,871 |
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|
9-11 |
6,071 |
85 |
411 |
788 |
671 |
830 |
1,590 |
1,002 |
694 |
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|
12-14 |
3,363 |
47 |
297 |
505 |
460 |
547 |
874 |
415 |
218 |
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|
15+ |
3,174 |
66 |
309 |
608 |
594 |
556 |
724 |
246 |
71 |
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|
Percent |
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|
None |
18.1 |
52.3 |
31.9 |
23.1 |
16.4 |
15.5 |
3.7 |
6.1 |
14.7 |
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|
1 |
12.7 |
11.1 |
18.0 |
16.9 |
14.8 |
14.6 |
3.9 |
7.9 |
14.0 |
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|
2 |
10.8 |
22.4 |
11.4 |
10.0 |
8.7 |
10.1 |
5.6 |
9.4 |
13.7 |
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|
3 |
8.0 |
3.3 |
6.8 |
7.1 |
6.8 |
7.2 |
7.2 |
9.9 |
11.8 |
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|
4-5 |
14.3 |
3.4 |
9.9 |
10.5 |
12.0 |
13.3 |
16.8 |
21.5 |
19.4 |
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|
6-8 |
15.9 |
2.7 |
8.3 |
11.1 |
13.7 |
15.6 |
26.1 |
24.4 |
17.3 |
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|
9-11 |
9.7 |
2.1 |
5.5 |
8.8 |
10.7 |
10.1 |
18.3 |
12.4 |
6.4 |
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|
12-14 |
5.4 |
1.1 |
4.0 |
5.7 |
7.4 |
6.7 |
10.1 |
5.1 |
2.0 |
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|
15+ |
5.1 |
1.6 |
4.2 |
6.8 |
9.5 |
6.8 |
8.3 |
3.1 |
0.7 |
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(1) All secondary schools.
6.4 As shown in Table 15, the percentage of leavers with 3 or more Higher passes has risen from 23 per cent in 1987-88 to 30 per cent in 1997-98; it has remained stable at around 30 per cent since 1993-94. It should be noted that this number of Higher passes (3 or more) corresponds to Level 3 in the former ASCETT targets. Until 1993, three or more Higher passes was also the General Entry Requirement of the Scottish Universities Council on Entry (minimum entry requirements are now at the discretion of individual higher education institutions.)
6.5 Over the last two decades, there has been a marked trend towards girls gaining better SCE qualifications at school than boys. Chart 7 illustrates that in the mid 1970s a similar proportion of male and female school leavers held 3 or more Higher passes. Since then, this proportion has generally increased for both boys and girls, but at a faster rate for girls. As a result, a gap in achievement of girls over boys has opened up. In 1997-98, nearly 63 per cent of girls held 5 Standard Grade awards @ 1-3 or better, compared to 52 per cent of boys. Over a third of girls (34 per cent) left with 3 or more Higher passes, compared to slightly over a quarter (26 per cent) of boys (Table 17).
6.6 Boys were more likely than girls to leave school with no SCE qualifications; in 1997-98, 7 per cent of boys left with no qualifications as compared with 6 per cent of girls. Boys were also more likely to leave with SCE qualifications below Standard Grade awards @ 1-3 (14 per cent for boys as compared with 9 per cent of girls) (Table 16).
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