The great divide widens in exam results

Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009 22:09

THE gap between the best and worst performing local authorities in school examinations is widening, according to new statistics.

A detailed breakdown of last month's exam results, published by the Scottish Government yesterday, also showed girls continuing to outperform boys at every age and stage.

A league table of councils shows inner city local authorities, such as Glasgow and Dundee, do worst while leafy suburbs such as East Renfrewshire come out top again.

East Renfrewshire topped the table for the proportion of S4 pupils going on to gain three or more Highers in S5 with 49 per cent managing the level of attainment.

In contrast, neighbouring Glasgow saw only 13 per cent achieve the same. East Renfrewshire has become so popular with parents because of its exam results that it has had to resort to legal threat to prevent parents outside its boundaries lying to secure places in its schools.

Last year the council threatened legal action against 20 people caught telling lies about where they lived. However, all of the families concerned backed down and withdrew their placing requests before any legal action was instigated.

Meanwhile, inner-city local authorities generally feature at the bottom of the league table, with Dundee seeing just 16 per cent gaining three or more Highers in S5.

Richer areas such as East Dunbartonshire with 39 per cent managing the same, were at the top of the table.

The outperformance of boys by girls was repeated again this year, a phenomenon education experts attribute to the fact boys mature later than girls.

In the exams, 93 per cent of girls and 92 per cent of boys achieved English and maths at Standard Grade foundation level or better by the end of S4.

And as the going got tougher, the more the girls outperformed boys. Seventy-nine per cent of girls, but only 75 per cent of boys, got five or more Standard Grades at general level or better. And 39 per cent of girls, but only 31 per cent of boys, got five or more Standard Grades at credit level.

The same applied to Highers, where 34 per cent of fourth-year girls but only 27 cent of fourth-year boys, went on to get three or more Highers in their sixth year of school.

The proportion getting five or more Highers was 23 per cent of girls, compared to just 17 per cent of boys. The figures were contained in a statistical breakdown of last August's examination results published today.

Alan Lafferty, East Renfrewshire's education convener, said: "We either widened or maintained the gap between ourselves and comparator authorities on the various measures."

He paid tribute to pupils' hard work, good teachers and "outstanding" parental support for the performance which he also attributed to individualised learning plans for pupils.

And he vowed to widen the gap even further: "We are committed to further raising performance year-on-year."

Jonathan Findlay, executive member for education at Glasgow City Council, declared it had been the best ever year for the city in the examination league and said those sitting the tests deserved congratulations.

He added: "However we recognise the challenges ahead for our city and young people but we are heartened to see the gap between national performance and our own is continuing to close."