MEDIOCRITY IS WRIT LARGE ACROSS WHITEBOARDS OF OUR EDUCATION SERVICE

By Bill Heaney

The SNP Government is under fire over the performance of many schools across the country, as a new league table showed them lagging far behind the leaders.

Pupils in urban or rural areas generally outperformed those living in small towns, with a new league table showing a third of high schools in these communities are falling well below benchmarks.

The table was compiled by the Scotsman newspaper using exam performance data, with schools ranked by how many leavers in 2022 had gained at least five Highers, or equivalent.

Across Scotland, the total stood at 39 per cent. This was lower than the preceding two years, when exams were cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions, but higher than pre-pandemic levels.

As ever, Jordanhill School in Glasgow came out on top, with 89 per cent of its pupils leaving with at least five Highers last year. It was followed by Bearsden Academy in East Dunbartonshire, where the figure was 80 per cent, and St Ninian’s High School in East Renfrewshire, at 79 per cent.

It’s no coincidence that these schools are in some of the most prosperous areas in the West of Scotland and the lowest ranking schools are in areas of multiple deprivation.

Stephen Kerr, Scottish Conservative education spokesman, told the newspaper: “It is deeply concerning to see that small town schools seem to be underperforming compared to their urban counterparts.

“This is a sad symptom of the SNP’s shambolic mismanagement of Scotland’s school system, which makes a mockery of Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that education was her Government’s ‘number one’ priority, and all too typical of their habitual neglect of rural communities. This simply isn’t good enough.”

West Dunbartonshire, where the local government boundaries are about to be redrawn, are there too, of course and the only one of the four main schools presently in the new Dunbartonshire West constituency is in the top 100 achieving schools – Hermitage Academy..

The local education department, where the Chief Education Officer is Laura Mason, currently has Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School, Dumbarton Academy, St Peter the Apostle, Clydebank High and Vale of Leven Academy, to supervise and motivate.

The Clydebank schools will come under Dunbartonshire East following the boundary changes and Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh, which comes in at 81 in the table,  will be attached to Dunbartonshire West at that time.

Cllrs Clare Steel, John Millar and Chief Education Officer Laura Mason.

Labour councillors holding the convenership and vice-convenership of eduction on WDC at present are Cllr Clare Steel, who holds a Clydebank seat on the Council and will disappear upriver after the boundary changes, and Cllr John Miller, the Deputy Provost, whose seat is in Vale of Leven, and will remain in Dunbartonshire West.

The Scottish Government said it does not produce league tables “as they do not take full account of the context of individual schools when making comparisons between them”.

It added: “There are a variety of factors which influence attainment, many of which are outwith the control of the school, but which can have a significant impact on learning and achievement.”