Attainment gap

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd May 2015, 01:00 BST

Labour’s Jackie Baillie is correct to raise concerns about the Scottish Government’s record on closing the attainment gap (your report, 21 May). Closing this gap will do more to tackle inequality than raising the minimum wage or welfare payments.

The context is grim. The authoritative 2014 Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy report found that attainment in Scottish schools has dropped in recent years.

Worse than that, the attainment gap between the least and most deprived students has increased in both relative and absolute terms.