Statistics evidencing closure of the attainment gap: FOI release

Information requested

On John Swinney's last appearance on Nick Robinson's political thinking, he said the government had closed the attainment gap by 65% since 2007, could you supply any evidence to back this up?
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson - John Swinney: Trump, Independence and Scottish Troops in Ukraine - BBC Sounds

Response

The figures referenced by the First Minister are taken from Scotland’s official school leaver statistics. The relevant publication is Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 8: 2026 edition - gov.scot.

The First Minister, stated during the programme that “over the lifetime of the SNP government, the attainment gap has closed by about 65%”. For the purposes of this claim, the First Minister was referring to young people entering a positive initial destination three months after leaving school. Between 2009-10 and 2024-25 the gap between pupils in the most and least deprived areas who were in a positive initial destination three months after leaving school reduced from 13.2 percentage points to 4.7 percentage points, which is a reduction of 64%. To note: comparable data is available from the academic year 2009–10 onwards; there are no directly comparable figures for earlier years.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.