Attainment gap in primary schools wider since Covid

Key Facts

The attainment gap between primary school pupils from the most and least deprived areas of Scotland appears to have widened during the Covid pandemic.
- The gap between the proportion of P1, P4 and P7 pupils from the most and least deprived areas who achieved their expected level in literacy has increased from 20.7 percentage points in 2018/19 to 24.7 percentage points in 2020/21.
Closing the attainment gap has been a key goal of the Scottish government in recent years, but there had been fears that pupils from poorer backgrounds would be less equipped than wealthier pupils to deal with the impact on learning of schools closures and other Covid restrictions.
The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels report said: "The closure of schools in March 2020 and January 2021 is likely to have had a negative effect on some pupils' progress and attainment with socio-economically deprived children amongst those who may have been most negatively affected."