Purpose

Attainment Statistics presents a summary of entries and attainment in National Qualifications and other courses.

Status

These statistics are classified as Official Statistics.

Official Statistics are produced in adherence with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Further information on SQA’s approach to publishing Official Statistics can be found on our webpage.

Description

This publication details attainment for the main qualifications taken at school and college level by candidates in Scotland during an academic year (e.g. 2024 covers the academic year 2023 to 2024) and includes data for previous years (nominally four years, where available). Qualifications include a mix of current National Courses (National 2 to National 5, Higher, and Advanced Higher) as well as Skills for Work, Awards, National Progression Awards, and National Certificates.

The purpose of National Courses, as well as Skills for Work, Awards, National Progression Awards and National Certifications, is to enable certification and recognition for the programmes of work that candidates undertake in the senior phase of secondary education and in colleges.

The broad objectives of National Courses are to provide high standards, and breadth and depth of learning for individual candidates, assessed usually via national exams, coursework and / or internally assessed components.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) has 12 levels, which, in ascending order (SCQF Level 1 to 12) indicate the level of difficulty of a particular qualification. The SCQF allows for broad comparisons to be made between qualifications to allow candidates, employers and the public to understand the range of skills and learning that should be achieved at each level. More information can be found on the SCQF website.

The figures are produced by independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Approach to awarding prior to 2020

Prior to 2020, the Scottish examination system had been in a period of change since the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Revised National Qualification (RNQ) changes made to the assessment of National 5 courses in 2018, Higher courses in 2019, and Advanced Higher courses in 2020, meant units and unit assessments were removed and each course assessment was adjusted accordingly.

Approach to awarding, 2020 to 2024

In 2020, the Deputy First Minister directed SQA to issue grades, primarily on the basis of teacher estimates. Grades that had been adjusted upwards in an earlier moderation process were also retained. Details about the moderation process used in 2020 is described in the methodology report for 2020.

In 2021, the Scottish Government commissioned the SQA to develop an Alternative Certification Model (ACM 2021) for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher for 2021. This model was developed by the National Qualifications 2021 Group. The National Qualifications 2021 Group is represented by the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), Colleges Scotland, Education Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), School Leaders Scotland (SLS), the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the Scottish Government, National Parent Forum of Scotland, and the Scottish Youth Parliament. The model is based on teacher judgement, supported by assessment resources and quality assurance. The approach to certification adopted by SQA in 2021 is described in detail in the methodology report for 2021.

In 2022, SQA worked with partners across the education sector, including teachers, lecturers, learners, parents and carers, throughout the year to agree the wide-ranging package of support that was put in place to enable learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do, despite the disruption to learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. SQA implemented various modifications and revision support to reduce the assessment requirements for courses and increase learning and teaching time. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2022 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2023, awarding operated using the established procedure as far as possible in order to evaluate the performance of the course assessment, but with consideration given to the following factors:

  • Impact of the reducing legacy of disruption to teaching and learning caused by the pandemic
  • Impact of modifications to course assessment
  • Impact of the removal of revision support

Awarding decisions were therefore ‘sensitive’ to these factors, ensuring that grade boundary decisions recognised that performance continues to be impacted. This was informed by the full range of qualitative and quantitative data used during awarding, with additional data from 2021-22 on the impact of modifications. Further details about the approach to awarding in 2023 can be found in the methodology report.

In 2024, awarding used the well-established procedures to evaluate the performance of the course assessment and, where appropriate, considered the impact of changes to assessment brought about by the return to full course assessment for many courses. These changes to assessment included the removal of optionality in some question papers and the reintroduction of:

  • Coursework components (projects, assignments, dissertations)
  • Optional content into question papers
  • Course content examined in question papers
  • An exam component

Further details about the approach to awarding in 2024 can be found in the methodology report.

Source of data

Provisional Attainment Statistics

National Qualification, Skills for Work and The Scottish Baccalaureate data are collected in late July following the completion of certification procedures. The data is collected at around the same time each year to aid year-on-year comparisons. These are considered “provisional” subject to processes including appeals and late amendments.

Award, National Certificate and National Progression Award data have been collected on a monthly basis for the period between 1 August YYYY and 30 June YYYY+1 (e.g. 1 August 2023 and 30 June 2024). The data have been collected on the first working day of each month.

Attainment Statistics

National Qualification, Skills for Work and The Scottish Baccalaureate data have been collected at the beginning of November following the completion of appeals and other post certification procedures. The data is collected at around the same time each year to aid year-on-year comparisons.

Award, National Certificate and National Progression Award data have been collected on a monthly basis for the period between 1 August YYYY and 31 July YYYY+1 (e.g. 1 August 2023 and 31 July 2024). The data have been collected on the first working day of each month.

Stage

Data is merged with school roll data provided by the Scottish Government (Scottish Candidate Number (SCN), centre number and stage information). Stage data is updated where there is a match by SCN on the data and the Scottish Government school roll data.

Methodology

The total entries are calculated for each qualification within selected qualification types contained in the report: National 2 to National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher, Scottish Baccalaureate and Skills for Work. Total attainment for each qualification is calculated for each qualification type contained in the report: National 2 to National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher, Scottish Baccalaureate, Skills for Work, Awards, National Progressions Awards and National Certificates.

For graded qualifications (National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher) attainment is reported cumulatively from A to A to D, with No Awards (includes results of 8, 9, missing, and E) reported separately. For ungraded qualifications (National 2 to National 4, Scottish Baccalaureate, Skills for Work, Awards, National Progressions Awards and National Certificates) attainment is reported as the number of candidates attaining the qualification. The Scottish Baccalaureate also details the number of candidates obtaining the Pass classification ‘Distinction’.

‘Stage’ is a candidate attribute indicating their progression through education. Candidates can take qualifications from more than one level. Counts of stage are based on the candidates rather than attainment records. For example, a candidate with three National 5 records and one Higher record will be counted once in the National 5 stage table and once in the Higher stage table. If candidates have more than one stage recorded for any qualification level, stage is prioritised as follows:

  • Stage 6 is given priority 1 – ‘S6’
  • Stage 5 is given priority 2 – ‘S5’
  • Stage 4 is given priority 3 – ‘S4’
  • Stage 3 is given priority 4 – ‘S3’
  • Stages 1, 2 and 7 are given priority 5 – ‘Other School’
  • Stage 10 is given priority 6 – ‘FE College’
  • Any other stage given priority 7 – ‘Other’

Centre types ‘Education Authority - Secondary School’ and ‘Education Authority - Special School’ are grouped as ‘Education Authority’; centre types ‘Independent - Secondary School’ and ‘Independent - Special School’ are grouped as ‘Independent’; centre type ‘Further Education College’ is reported as ‘FE College’; and all remaining centre types, including training providers, voluntary sector organisations, HM Armed Forces, prisons and primary schools are reported as ‘Other’.

Confidentiality and rounding

All figures are rounded to the nearest five. Figures between one and four inclusive have been suppressed to protect against the risk of disclosure of personal information. All percentage figures for a course have been suppressed where values between one and four inclusive have been suppressed. Cells containing suppressed figures are marked up with the shorthand [c].

Percentages are calculated using figures prior to rounding. Percentages with a value greater than zero and less than 0.05% are marked up with the shorthand [low].

Total values of rows or columns are calculated using figures prior to rounding; the sum of rounded figures may differ from the total reported.

Limitations

SQA external assessments did not go ahead in 2020 and 2021 due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alternative approaches to assessment, relying on teacher judgement, were used to award grades and allow learners to progress. SQA external assessments returned in 2022, but significant assessment modifications were put in place with the aim to increase learning and teaching time. The course assessment modifications were retained for 2023. The different awarding arrangements in place between 2019 and 2023 mean that it is not possible to compare attainment between years without full consideration of this essential contextual information.

With the phased introduction of the Revised National Qualifications, grade D was extended from a notional 45 to 49% to a notional 40 to 49%. No Award was reduced from a notional 0 to 44% to 0 to 39% as a result of this change to grade D. These changes were implemented for National 5 from the 2017 to 2018 academic year, for Higher from the 2018 to 2019 academic year, and for Advanced Higher from the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

In September 2018, SQA adopted the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO), and Information Standards Board for Education, Skills and Children’s Services (ISB) categories for legal sex type. These allow the use of the values Male, Female, Not Known, and Not Applicable. Prior to the adoption of the legal sex type categories, Male and Female were the only two options available. As sex and gender were used interchangeably, SQA Statistics historically reported this variable as ‘gender’.

Attainment of any candidate that has not identified as Male or Female will not feature in the published sex tables due to the low numbers of candidates in the ‘Not Known’ and ‘Not Applicable’ categories.

FE colleges have relatively low uptake for graded National Qualifications. The range of subjects taken in FE colleges is also considerably narrower than that of the education authority and independent centre types in this release. For these reasons, overall attainment rates for FE colleges are not comparable.

‘Other’ centre type have relatively low uptake for graded National Qualifications. The range of subjects taken in ‘Other’ centre type is also considerably narrower than that of the education authority and independent centre types in this release. For these reasons, overall attainment rates for ‘Other’ centre type are not comparable.

465 entries that were registered for the Incomplete Evidence Contingency (IEC) process in 2021 are not included in the provisional attainment figures. The process was introduced as part of the ACM 2021 to allow candidates who met specific criteria to undertake assessments and be resulted post-August 2021.

Information Governance

The data in this publication is defined as being statistical for the purposes of information governance and data protection. This primarily means that the associated processing is not carried out for the purposes of measures or decisions with respect to a particular data subject. Further information on this processing category can be found in the appropriate data protection legislation.

Revisions and corrections

Provisional Attainment Statistics are published in August to coincide with the day candidates receive their results. Attainment Statistics is a planned revision to, and replaces the, Provisional Attainment Statistics publication in December following the completion of post certification procedures such as appeals, and late amends, and includes an additional month of data for Awards, National Progressions Awards and National Certificates.

Once published these statistics are not usually subject to unplanned revisions. Further information about revisions and corrections is available in our policy document.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on our publications. Please contact the team with any comments about ways we can improve a publication to meet your needs.