Education in Scotland

Education in Scotland

Logo of the Scottish Government
Education Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills	Jenny Gilruth MSP
National education budget
Budget	£2.6 bn[2]
Per student	£3,855 (2004–2005)[1]‡
General details
Primary languages	English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots
System type	National
Compulsory education	1872
Enrollment (2005[3])
Total	1,452,240
Primary	390,260
Secondary	322,980
Post secondary	739,000#
‡: Expenditure on pre-school, primary and secondary education only. #: 2004, All further and higher education institutions includes overseas students.

Education in Scotland is provided in state schools, private schools and by individuals through homeschooling. Mandatory education in Scotland begins for children in Primary 1 (P1) at primary school and ends in Fourth Year (S4) at secondary school. Overall accountability and control of state–education in Scotland rests with the Scottish Government, and is overseen by its executive agency, Education Scotland, with additional responsibility for nursery schools being the joint responsibility of both Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate. Scotland's private schools are overseen by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools.^[4] Children in Scotland sit mandatory National Standardised Assessments in Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) at the end of primary school, and Third Year (S3) in secondary school, which assist in monitoring children's progress and providing diagnostic data information to support teachers' professional judgement.^[5]

Each of Scotland's 32 local authorities have control over the provision of mandatory education and early learning and childcare (nursery education; not mandatory) in their area and have a statutory requirement to ensure pupils in each area receive adequate and efficient provision of school education.^[6][7] Each local authority has control over their own education budget and have responsibility to ensure that their local authority area is implementing national educational policy and guidelines as directed by the Scottish Government.^[8] When proposing a change to any aspect of education provision in their area, local authorities must engage in a formal process as required through the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.^[8]

Education in Scotland has a history of universal provision of public education, and the Scottish education system is distinctly different from those in the other countries of the United Kingdom. The Scotland Act 1998 gives the Scottish Parliament legislative control over all education matters, and the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 is the principal legislation governing education in Scotland. Traditionally, the Scottish system at secondary school level has emphasised breadth across a range of subjects, while the English, Welsh and Northern Irish systems have emphasised greater depth of education over a smaller range of advanced subjects.

The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD in 2018 ranked Scotland as second out of four in the UK (after England) for reading with an average above the OECD average, while scoring third in the UK, and its results steadily dropping, in maths and science, scoring at OECD average.^[9][10]

The 2021 Nuffield report noted that "Scottish pupils start off strongly at a young age, but then quickly fall behind their UK peers, particularly in maths, which we know has been an issue that Scotland has had to grapple with for several years."^[11] In 2014, research by the Office for National Statistics found that Scotland was the most highly educated country in Europe and among the most well-educated in the world in terms of tertiary education attainment, above countries like Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg, with roughly 40% of Scots aged 16–64 educated to NVQ level 4 and above.^[12]