Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2006: General Report

Education, Skills and Training Domain

The education domain includes indicators that measure both outcomes of education deprivation, such as lack of qualifications in children and adults, and causes of education deprivation such as absenteeism and lack of progression to further and higher education. A full list of indicators and their respective weighting is provided in Annex 2.

Several improvements have been made to the methodology used to calculate the education indicators for the SIMD 2006 and, for this reason, the indicators and overall domain scores are not directly comparable with those of the SIMD 2004 education domain. These changes are listed briefly in Annex 2 and in full detail in the SIMD 2006 Technical Report. The majority of the 2006 education domain indicators are based on data from 2002/3 to 2004/5 academic years.

Key Points

• Glasgow City contains almost a third (31 per cent) of the 15% most education deprived data zones in Scotland in the SIMD 2006. North Lanarkshire and City of Edinburgh have the next greatest share with nine per cent each.
• Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and West Lothian have shown a relative decrease in the number of data zones the 15% most education deprived data zones between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006.
• South Lanarkshire, Falkirk and Dundee City have shown a relative increase in the number of data zones in the 15% most education deprived data zones between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006.

Education deprived areas in SIMD 2006

The most education deprived data zone in Scotland in the 2006 SIMD is in the Parkhead area of Glasgow City. Of the five most education deprived data zones in the SIMD 2006, four are in Glasgow City and one in North Lanarkshire. The Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and Eilean Siar do not have any data zones in the 15% most education deprived in Scotland.

Concentrations of education deprivation are predominantly found in Glasgow City, which contains 31 per cent of the 15% most education deprived areas across Scotland. The next largest concentrations are found in North Lanarkshire and the City of Edinburgh, which both have a nine per cent share of the 15% most education deprived data zones in Scotland. A full list is available in the SIMD 2006 Statistical Compendium.

Table 2.12 shows the share of data zones within a local authority which are in the 15% most education deprived. Glasgow City has the highest proportion of its data zones in the 15% most deprived (44 per cent, 305 data zones out of 694), followed by Dundee City, with 55 data zones out of 179 (31 per cent).

Change in education deprived areas between SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006

Although the 2004 and 2006 SIMD education domains are not directly comparable due to improvements in methodology, the ranks in the two domains are highly correlated (see Annex 4). The greatest movement of ranks between 2004 and 2006 occurred in data zones in the least deprived areas. Across Scotland 77 per cent (752) of the 976 data zones in the 15% most education deprived data zones in 2004, remained in the 15% most education deprived in 2006.

Local authority areas that have shown a decrease in the number of data zones in the 15% most education deprived areas are Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and West Lothian (with falls of 34, 11, 9 and 9 data zones respectively). Local authority areas that have shown an increase in the number of data zones in the 15% most education deprived are South Lanarkshire, Falkirk and Dundee City, (with increases of 18, 9 and 7 data zones respectively). A full list is available in the SIMD 2006 Statistical Compendium.

Table 2.12 Local share of the 15% most education deprived data zone in the SIMD 2004 and SIMD 2006, by local authority area