School estate statistics 2020

Results of the 2020 School Estate Core Facts Survey.

This document is part of a collection


Chapter 3: School condition

A school’s condition is the current state of its fabric. The following ratings are used to measure school condition:

  • A: Good – Performing well and operating efficiently;
  • B: Satisfactory – Performing adequately but showing minor deterioration;
  • C: Poor – Showing major defects and/or not operating adequately;
  • D: Bad – Economic life expired and/or risk of failure.

The proportion of schools in good or satisfactory condition has increased 7.1 percentage points from 82.8 per cent in April 2014 to 89.9 per cent in April 2020 (Table 3.1). This is a result of investment and reorganisation of the school estate.

Taking into account the number of pupils in each school, there has been a 7.4 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils educated in good or satisfactory condition schools from 83.8 per cent in April 2014 to 91.1 per cent in April 2020 (Table 3.2).

Information on the condition of schools in Dundee City in 2020 was not available at the time of this publication. Therefore, ratings from the 2019 School Estates Core Facts Survey have been used for schools in Dundee City to produce comparable statistics for Scotland as a whole. See section 6.2 of the background notes for more information.

Table 3.1: Condition of schools, 2014-2020 (1)
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020(2)(3)
Count A: Good 620 641 666 703 696 709 700
B: Satisfactory 1,498 1,479 1,453 1,462 1,470 1,491 1,538
C: Poor 422 406 396 345 331 284 248
D: Bad 16 11 8 5 3 4 2
Condition not recorded 2 1 1 1 1 4 1
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 2,118 2,120 2,119 2,165 2,166 2,200 2,238
C: Poor or D: Bad 438 417 404 350 334 288 250
Percentage A: Good 24.2 25.3 26.4 27.9 27.8 28.5 28.1
B: Satisfactory 58.6 58.3 57.6 58.1 58.8 59.8 61.8
C: Poor 16.5 16.0 15.7 13.7 13.2 11.4 10.0
D: Bad 0.6 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1
Condition not recorded 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 82.8 83.5 84.0 86.0 86.6 88.3 89.9
C: Poor or D: Bad 17.1 16.4 16.0 13.9 13.4 11.6 10.0

1. Condition as reported in April of relevant year.

2. No condition was recorded for one school as it is a special school located in a hospital.

3. Condition ratings from April 2019 have been used for schools in Dundee City as their 2020 ratings were not available at the time of publication.

Table 3.2: Pupils by condition of schools, 2014-2020 (1, 2)
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018(3) 2019(3) 2020(4)(5)
Count A: Good 241,605 225,505 236,260 253,369 268,689 269,455 265,643
B: Satisfactory 321,568 347,360 335,159 343,506 339,619 350,555 369,063
C: Poor 103,635 98,387 102,526 83,810 79,010 70,030 60,836
D: Bad 5,422 4,277 3,604 2,137 1,884 1,093 1,050
Condition not recorded 213 0 0 0 0 643 0
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 563,173 572,865 571,419 596,875 608,308 620,010 634,706
C: Poor or D: Bad 109,057 102,664 106,130 85,947 80,894 71,123 61,886
Percentage A: Good 35.9 33.4 34.9 37.1 39.0 39.0 38.1
B: Satisfactory 47.8 51.4 49.5 50.3 49.3 50.7 53.0
C: Poor 15.4 14.6 15.1 12.3 11.5 10.1 8.7
D: Bad 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2
Condition not recorded 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0
A: Good or B: Satisfactory 83.8 84.8 84.3 87.4 88.3 89.6 91.1
C: Poor or D: Bad 16.2 15.2 15.7 12.6 11.7 10.3 8.9

1. Condition as reported in April of relevant year.

2. Refers to pupils on the school roll the previous September except where rolls have been updated to reflect the number of pupils on 1st April. Schools opened after September but before April will have no pupils recorded unless the school roll was supplied during this collection. Please see section 6.1 of the background notes for more information.

3. Pupil rolls for 2018 and 2019 were corrected in September 2020 as special school pupils were missing from these figures.

4. No condition was recorded for one school as it is a special school located in a hospital. Zero pupils were on its roll.

5. Condition ratings from April 2019 have been used for schools in Dundee City as their 2020 ratings were not available at the time of publication. Pupil rolls have been updated to September 2019.

Contact

Email: school.stats@gov.scot

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