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The Scottish Government’s vision for education is to achieve excellence and equity. Therefore, consideration of equity, which includes in terms of poverty, is a factor in all education policy. However, the Scottish Attainment Challenge is the principal policy and investment to address the poverty related attainment gap. The Scottish Attainment Challenge began in 2015, when funding was distributed to targeted local authorities through the Schools Programme and Challenge Authorities. In 2017, the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) was introduced, providing funding direct to schools. In 2018, the Care Experienced Children and Young People fund (CECYP) began, providing funding to local authorities to enable them to target initiatives, activities, and resources that will improve the educational outcomes of this group of young people.

In 2022, the Scottish Attainment Challenge was refreshed, and the ‘Schools Programme and ‘Challenge Authorities’ funds were replaced by Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) which provided grants to all 32 local authorities.

The National Programmes include a range of initiatives to policies to close the poverty related attainment gap, including support for various third sector organisations including Young Scot, Child Poverty Action Group and Youth Link; investment in Education Scotland attainment advisors, CELCIS work in co-ordination the virtual school headteachers network, teacher leadership training, training of educational psychologists.

There is a further suite of policies, outwith SAC, which contribute to both the government’s vision of excellence and equity and the ambition to eradicate child poverty by reducing the cost of the school day and improving readiness to learn. These have contributed to reducing the poverty related gap by 60% (or three-fifths) since 2009-10 for young people leaving school and going on to a positive destination, such as work, training or further study 9 months after leaving school. So, regardless of socio-economic background, most young people leaving school today are going on to a positive destination.

Marking of exams, and quality assurance of the associated processes, is an operational matter for the SQA in its independent role as an examination body.

The Scottish Government did not instruct the review into the marking of Higher History in 2024 carried out by SQA and the detail of the methodology (including who the reviewer spoke to) were operational decisions for the SQA.

The Scottish Government notes that the SQA has undertaken a substantial review which has demonstrably considered a wide range of evidence in reaching its conclusions. These findings have been independently peer reviewed by the Executive Director of Qualifications and Assessment at the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC), who agreed that its conclusions and recommendations are supported by evidence.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-31488 on 5 December 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Three of the four planned Short Life Working Group meetings have now taken place, and arrangements are currently being made for the final meeting. The group’s work will then inform advice to Ministers, as per the group’s remit.

To help ensure that qualifications awarded in Scotland are of a consistently high standard, the Short Life Working Group (SLWG) was established to develop and consider the options and implications of any potential changes to the scope of accreditation.

The SLWG is chaired by the Scottish Government’s Director for Education Reform and all members have a responsibility to share their expertise from their roles within the Scottish qualifications system. This is with a view to developing an evidence base that will support informed decision making on all aspects relating to the scope of accreditation.

The responsibility for quality assurance within the education and qualifications system is a shared responsibility across Scottish Government, a range of public bodies including the SQA, as well as other institutions.

The Scottish Government uses a range of data and evidence to measure literacy rates among school pupils.

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL), data, which is based on teacher judgement, provides information on the proportion of P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels in Reading, Writing, Listening and Talking. The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2022-23 data was published in December 2023.

Data on the reading skills of 15 year olds is also collected every 3 years as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Scotland’s results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022) were published in December 2023.

Annual Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations also contains data on the percentage of school leavers who attained literacy at each SCQF level. Scotland’s Summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations, no. 6: 2024 was published in February 2024.

From 2026 onwards, Scotland will join the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) to gather evidence on the progress in students’ reading achievement of pupils aged 9 to 10 years.

We have committed to refresh the Supporting Children’s Learning Code of Practice during this parliamentary term. We have been working collaboratively with a range of education partners and policy areas over the past 19 months, to ensure it continues to fully support schools and local authorities to fulfil their duties under the ASL Act. An update on progress was set out in our third progress report, published in November 2024.

In alignment with my response to the Education, Children and Young People Committee, a public consultation will be held in early 2025, providing an opportunity for wider stakeholders with an interest in the Code of Practice to share their views.

To support the development of the Strategy since 23 November 2023, we have spent approximately £19k on engagement, and on the publication costs of our analysis of engagement on the Statement of Intent. In addition, staffing costs to develop the Strategy have continued to be met from our operating costs budget for 2023-24 and 2024-25.

During this timescale, the Scottish Government has also continued to provide funding to a number of organisations whose work supports transitions and the development of the Strategy including, but not limited to, the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland, Capability Scotland, Enable Scotland, and the Independent Living Fund Scotland.

National Standardised Assessments produce data at: classroom, school, local authority and national levels.

The primary purpose of NSA is to provide teachers with indicative, diagnostic information about learner strengths and development needs. They provide information directly to teachers on what individual learners can and cannot do in aspects of literacy and numeracy, at a particular moment in time. Data is broken down by curriculum content, for example in literacy, data includes information on “tools for reading” and “finding and using information”.

At school level, assessment data shows how well learners perform in relation to a number of characteristics, for example free school meal entitlement, and provides information about how learners progress over time.

NSA produces aggregated data that can help local authorities by providing information to inform conversations about school improvement. It can also help identify effective practice to disseminate, as well as areas for authority wide professional learning.

At national level, anonymised data is broken down by both curriculum content and learner characteristics, e.g. gender and ethnicity. It allows the Scottish Government to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement in literacy and numeracy. This informs national policy, improvement priorities, and the type and level of support provided.

The Scottish Government is clear that NSA and the data they produce represent good value for money. NSA data is also valued by school staff – our 2023-24 survey of school staff who use the assessments found that over 72% agree that NSA data informs teaching and learning in their school.

As part of the Scottish Government's response to the Education, Children and Young People Committee's Inquiry on Additional Support for Learning, I committed to engage with our partners to consider this issue further.

My officials engage with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists as well as our wider partners on a regular basis and I will provide an update to the Committee on the outcome of these considerations in due course.

The Royal College will be invited to attend the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools to ensure they can contribute to the delivery of our Relationships and Behaviour in Schools National Action Plan.