A record number of Scottish domiciled students have enrolled at the country’s universities.
The latest Higher Education Student Statistics show the number of Scottish domiciled students studying at Scotland’s universities rose from 180,170 in 2020-21 to 183,025 in 2021-22.
There was also a record number of full-time Scottish domiciled first degree entrants recorded, with 5,595 Scots from Scotland’s most deprived areas entering university. This is an 41% increase since the establishment of the Commission on Widening Access.
Scottish universities also saw a record number of students qualifying in 2021-22, increasing by over 13% – from 82,850 in 2020-21 to 93,775 a year later.
Higher and Further Education Minister Jamie Hepburn said: “It is hugely encouraging to see a record number of Scottish domiciled students taking advantage of the world-class universities on our doorstep. These figures demonstrate the continued strength of our university sector.
“We continue to make progress to widen access, with a record number of students from Scotland’s most deprived communities securing a place at university.
“We are committed to the principle that access to education should be based on the ability to learn. Every child growing up in Scotland should have an equal chance of attending university, regardless of their background and circumstances.
“The sharp drop in EU students coming to Scotland’s university is bitterly disappointing – an inevitable consequence of the UK Government’s hugely damaging Brexit.
“The Scottish Government has invested record amounts in student support over recent years, and we will keep working with universities to ensure this funding continues to pay dividends.”
A record number of students enrolled at Scottish HEIs in 2021-22: an increase from last year of 6.5% (+18,355) to 301,230 and a 30.9% increase since 2006-07.
Scottish domiciled 183,025 (+1.6%, +2,855 since 2020-21)
rUK domiciled 35,730 (+3.5%, +1,210 since 2020-21)
Non-EU domiciled 65,300 (+37.1%, +17,670 since 2020-21)
EU domiciled 17,140 (-16.6%, -3,410 since 2020-21)
There was also a record 33,880 Scottish domiciled full-time first degree entrants, an increase of 595 from 2020-21.
The EIS is calling upon the Scottish Government to reverse its decision to delay roll-out of free school meals to all children in Primaries 6 and 7.
The commitment was originally due to be delivered by last August, but a previous decision by the Scottish Government delayed the roll-out. This year’s Scottish Budget, published recently, revealed that the universal roll-out of free school meals for P6 and P7 will now be delayed by a further two years, until 2024.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “Delaying the roll-out of free school meals to all primary school children was a shameful decision, which runs contrary to the Scottish Government’s stated commitment to tackling child poverty.
“This is now the second time that the roll-out of this hugely important policy has been delayed, with serious consequences for thousands of children and families across Scotland. It is also extremely disappointing how this change in policy came to light – not announced in Parliament, but obscured within the detail of the budget document itself.
“In a country where more than 1 child in 4 lives in poverty, and with the cost-of-living crisis pushing ever more families into financial difficulty, it is more important than ever that universal free school meals should be a priority.”
Ms Bradley added, “Although a watered-down, means-tested policy is being implemented for P6 and P7, this will miss many young people who will just fail to qualify for a free meal, placing great strain on families already struggling with the soaring cost of living.
“Means-testing of entitlement also does nothing to reduce the stigma families and young people often feel in claiming a free meal, which leads to many young people declining to take a free meal in order to avoid unwanted scrutiny from others or being isolated from friends if they do go to the school canteen for their meal when their friends not entitled to free meals go elsewhere to eat.
“Universal free meals remain the best way to ensure that all young people have access to a healthy and nutritious meal at school, without any stigma being attached. The Scottish Government claims that practical barriers to universal roll-out are the problem. The EIS view is that young people should not be hungry, stigmatised or left out whilst adults dither over dining chairs, tables and cutlery.
“Direct cash payments to cover the cost of food at school could be made as was done during the pandemic when schools were closed.”
The EIS has long called for the roll-out of universal free school meals for all young people. In addition to completing the roll-out to all primary pupils, the EIS believes that all secondary school pupils should also receive free school meals.
General Secretary Andrea Bradley is a long-standing member of the STUC Women’s Committee, which has also been active in the campaign for free school meals to combat the impact of poverty.
Budget sets out £4.85 billion investment in Education and Skills
A range of measures to help children, parents and carers with costs around school have been set out in the Scottish Government’s budget. These include expansion of free school meals in primary schools, holiday food provision and investment to ensure the school clothing grant national minimum of £120 for primary pupils and £150 for secondary pupils.
The spending plans for 2023-24 allocates £4.85 billion of funding across the education and skills portfolio, including measures to address the cost of living crisis.
New investment will see free school meals expanded to primary six and seven pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment – the next step in Scottish Government plans to deliver universal free school meals in primary schools.
It also includes £22 million of continued support to provide meals during the school holidays to children who need them most, along with £200 million for the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
In addition, the budget allocates £50 million of funding to continue to support the Whole Family Wellbeing programme of activity, a key pillar of The Promise, to support families to thrive.
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “I am committed to improving the life chances of all Scotland’s children, young people and learners. The measures set out in these spending plans are driven by our ambition to enable everybody to reach their full potential.
“We know the toll that the cost of living crisis has taken on families and households across Scotland and investment is being made in a range of important measures which will help mitigate the impact of this.
“The expansion of free school meals in primary schools continues, providing a benefit in kind of around £400 per child for families, while the ongoing investment in the school clothing grant and access to digital devices will help those who need it most.
“Our ongoing commitment to free university tuition means that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, Scottish domiciled students do not incur additional debt of up to £27,750, and average student loan debt in Scotland remains the lowest in the UK.
“In Scotland we also have the most teachers-per-pupil, along with the highest per-pupil education spend anywhere in the UK. We will continue to provide local authorities with funding of £145.5 million per year to support the teaching workforce, as part of the overall local government settlement of £13.2 billion.
“Our commitment to closing the poverty related-attainment gap remains paramount and that is why we will invest a further £200 million next year in the Scottish Attainment Challenge – as part of our £1 billion commitment in this Parliament.”
The measures set out in the budget to help reduce the cost of school include:
Providing more than £13 million to uprate the School Clothing Grant in line with inflation.
Investing an additional £16 million resource and £80 million capital to fund the expansion of Free School Meals for all Primary 6 and 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, as the next step in fulfilling the commitment to universal provision in primary schools
Continuing to invest £22 million to provide meals during school holidays to the children who need them most.
Maintaining subsidy arrangements for the provision of milk and working with partners on a phased approach to the delivery of a universal milk scheme, aligned to the expansion of free school meals.
Investing £20 million towards the commitment to ensure every school-aged child, over the lifetime of the parliament, has access to a digital device to support their learning
Investment of nearly £2 billion towards Scotland’s universities and colleges to support delivery of high-quality education and training. This includes a cash increase of £20 million in the Higher Education resource budget compared to 2022-23, and a cash increase of £33.7 million in the Further Education resource and capital budget.
Following the tragic incident that happened at Babbs Mill Lake in Solihull over the weekend, there has been an outcry of support to increase education and knowledge related to water safety.
The team at the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) has picked up a long list of national, regional and local media engagements and there has been a consistent question that has come from journalists – Why are so many school children lacking essential water safety knowledge?
This has been supported with reminiscing about former approaches through public information films and broadcasts. The reality is that the technology and media landscape has changed so much. Whilst at one time posting some content, on TV, at 4pm in the afternoon would reach a large proportion of children there is now so much choice for children and young people, and it has become extremely difficult to guarantee maximum reach.
The question though is not a question for RLSS UK but a question that needs to be posed to government and this blog explains more …
Lee Heard, Charity Director at RLSS UK, praises the work of the emergency services, who the charity works closely with to share crucial messaging around water safety, but asks what more can be done to keep children safe:
“What is guaranteed is that the majority of children can be reached through the education system. The answer on keeping children safe around water is simple. Education. Only with class-based education and removing insurmountable barriers for some schools to travel to pool spaces will we be able to give every child the opportunity to learn crucial knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and be safe around water.
For many years, we at RLSS UK have been working tirelessly to raise awareness of barriers and lobby to try and push forwards with getting class-based water safety education on the national curriculum. It should not take yet another tragedy, and even more innocent young lives lost, to have to put the case forwards once again.
If you speak to Government about this subject they will provide rhetoric and spin. It is positive that in the national curriculum for England that swimming and water safety are included on the PE curriculum but for too many years now this has been used to mask inherent inadequacies and inequalities in their policy position on water safety. Pre-COVID, almost 1 in 4 children (24% of) were not hitting the statutory ‘can self-rescue’ standard. Worryingly there is huge disparity between high and low affluence households, as well as between different ethnic backgrounds, with those from the lowest affluence and those from ethnic minorities most likely to fail to reach the statutory standards.
Fig 1: The proportion (%) of UK children (years 3-11) who do not meet statutory ‘self-rescue’ standards by family affluence (2017/18).
Fig 2: The proportion (%) of UK children (years 3-11) who do not meet statutory ‘self-rescue’ standards by ethnicity (2017/18).
This uneven playing field is well known and RLSS UK has been asking questions of Government since 2017 about reviewing its approach to ensure equal access. This has been followed up by a petition by water safety campaigner and bereaved parent Becky Ramsey who sadly lost her son Dylan Ramsey to drowning in 2011. The petition received over 108,000 signatures. The Government responses indicated no desire to change its approach, instead included a list of approaches and highlighting the hard work of other organisations who have no statutory responsibility. It is worth reiterating that even pre-COVID those from white, affluent families were much more likely to have access to this lifesaving education, proof that the approaches were not working.
The fact is that charities, individuals, organisations and schools who believe in increasing water safety knowledge have been working tirelessly to fill this gap. RLSS UK is not alone, there are incredible organisations doing great work locally and nationally and work is supported by the National Water Safety Forum. We personally have produced resources year after year for our Drowning Prevention Week (DPW) campaigns during the summer months, and these are always widely used by many schools across the UK and Ireland, but this is not enough and we cannot, even across partners, educate everyone alone.
In 2022 during DPW, over 1.2m million children were educated using our free water safety resources but there are over 10.6 million school aged children in the UK. So ,what about those 9.4 million children? Would they know how to stay safe around water? Would they know what to do if they got into difficulty or saw someone in trouble? Or will we see even more sad news in the years that follow? We have the resources, and we have the knowledge to share but only 1 in 5 children have had water safety education in school in the last year. We have to ask why there is resistance to make this small change to include a short class-based water safety lesson on the curriculum?
The current situation is much worse, there has been an obvious decline in attainment since COVID. Of course, a global pandemic has presented it challenges but the worrying fact is that in many cases, this decline was seen in 20/21 and is not showing signs of recovery. The most recent data shared through the 2022 Active Lives Survey shows that only 34.7% of children from low affluence families are able swim 25m unaided. This means that children from low affluence families are half as likely (34.7%) to be able to swim 25m unaided than those from high income families (76.4%).
Fig 3: The proportion (%) of UK children (years 1-11) who can swim 25m unaided standards by family affluence (2021/22).
Fig 4: The proportion (%) of UK children (years 1-11) who can swim 25m unaided standards by ethnicity (2021/22).
The Government seems content that 80% of schools surveyed are currently offering school swimming, the detail shows a very different picture and says a lot about the acceptance of achievements against pre-set outcomes and standards.
The barriers for some schools are simply insurmountable for a number of reasons. The further backdrop is that there are real and perceived barriers for schools to access swimming spaces. The future landscape is due to make this more challenging, we already know that in 2022 there has been a 5.1% decrease in swimming facilities and UK Active has recently reported that 40% of council areas are at risk of losing their leisure centre(s) or seeing reduced services at their leisure centre(s) before 31 March 2023.
We know that swimming and water safety is already on the national curriculum, but we also know that unfortunately this isn’t a successful policy to meet the Government’s own stated outcomes. Water safety goes hand-in-hand with swimming. We will always advocate for swimming as a life and water skill but our research shows that swimming is quite simply not enough. In our analysis of 83 accidental drownings of 8–18-year-olds in the UK, 3 in 5 (61%) were described as swimmers by their friends and family. This data suggests that being able to swim alone isn’t a guarantee of staying safe in, on and around water.
We have lesson plans which can be incorporated into existing lessons such as English, Maths, Science and more, for all age groups from early years to primary, to secondary school students. We want to be proactive when educating children on water safety, not reactive when we hear of a tragedy like we saw in Solihull at the weekend.
For this to change we need support from the very top. We need the Government to accept and acknowledge that:
Its approach isn’t working for all of our communities and to acknowledge
One drowning or water related death is one too many, and
Each accidental drowning can be avoided by education that doesn’t require huge investment in time or finances to take pupils to a pool.
We are calling on the government to make a change; to finally put water safety education on the class-based curriculum, to give every single child the chance to know how to stay safe in and around water, to ensure that families don’t have to go through the heartache that so many have already endured and to simply care for our children and their futures.
Primary school literacy and numeracy improvement reaches new high
The poverty-related attainment gaps in literacy and numeracy levels across primary schools have seen the biggest decreases since records began, official statistics show.
The gap between the proportion of primary pupils from the most and least-deprived areas achieving expected levels has narrowed by 3.4 percentage points in literacy and 3.7 percentage points in numeracy, according to the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) 2021/22. This marks the largest narrowing of the gap in a year since consistent records began in 2016/17.
There has also been a record increase in the proportion of primary school pupils achieving the expected levels of literacy (up 3.7 percentage points to 70.5%) and numeracy (up 3.3 percentage points to 77.9%).
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “These figures demonstrate a real recovery from the pandemic and underline our progress towards tackling the poverty-related attainment gap, and achieving excellence for all of Scotland’s children and young people.
“This record improvement over one year for primary pupils achieving the expected levels in numeracy and literacy also shows more young people are getting the support they need to reach their full potential.
“However, there is no room for complacency. I recognise that attainment levels are still largely below pre-pandemic levels and the publication of local stretch aims by local councils last week sets out clear plans to significantly narrow the poverty-related attainment gap in the years ahead.
“We know that the impact of the pandemic – compounded by the current cost of living crisis – means children and young people need our support now more than ever. We are determined to do all we can to ensure they can reach their full potential, including a record investment of £1billion over this parliamentary term in the Scottish Attainment Challenge.”
Scotland’s councils set out ambitions to help young people succeed
Local authorities have published their plans for closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
Councils across Scotland have set their own “stretch aims” for children and young peoples’ progress in literacy and numeracy levels, for senior phase qualifications achieved, as well as for the number of young people participating in education, training, or employment.
For both overall attainment and in terms of closing the poverty-related attainment gap in literacy and numeracy, the collective stretch aims of local authorities demonstrate ambitions to work towards achieving the biggest two-year improvement recorded since the introduction of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
This work will be supported by the Scottish Government’s £1 billion Scottish Attainment Challenge, with £43 million in Strategic Equity Funding allocated to local authorities this year. In total more than £130 million has been distributed to schools so far this year to help close the poverty-related attainment gap.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “We are committed to substantially eliminating the poverty-related attainment gap and councils have a crucial role in driving this national mission forward at a local level.
“Given the effect of COVID-19 on children and young peoples’ achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels in 2020/21, these collective aims represent significant local ambition for recovery back to and beyond the national position pre-pandemic, aiming to narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over seven percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy compared to 2020/21.
“These will drive an enhanced focus on outcomes for children and young people, ensuring they have the opportunities and support they need to reach their full potential.”
Pupils at Wester Hailes High School welcomed Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education, Youth Employment and Training, to their classroom yesterday to showcase ENABLE Works’ Stepping Up programme.
The ground-breaking initiative, established in 2009 by ENABLE, Scotland’s largest charity for people with learning disabilities, supports young people who have a learning disability to build and explore their aspirations for the future, helping them to positively progress into employment, education and industry training upon leaving school.
Stepping Up currently has a 98% positive destination success rate for young people with learning disabilities – higher than current school leaver statistics across the country. The programme aims to tackle the underrepresentation of people with learning disabilities in the workplace through early intervention.
During his visit to Wester Hailes High School, Mr Hepburn heard directly from students who take part in Stepping Up about how the variety of interactive workshops and training activities have helped to increase their confidence and develop their employability skills and has allowed them the chance to realise their potential and consider their aspirations for the future.
Mr Hepburn was also able to get involved in an interview workshop, aimed at building employability skills, and had the chance to try ENABLE Works’ Virtual Reality (VR) headset, as the programme utilises the latest technologies to allow the young people involved to truly be able to envision their future.
Jay, one of the Stepping Up students, explained what the programme has meant to him:“I have really enjoyed my time on Stepping Up so far, as I’ve learned a lot about college and work and had the chance to try new things such as the VR headset, while working alongside people in a similar position to me.
“As a pupil in fifth year, I’ve started thinking about what I’d like to do after school. Before Stepping Up I really wasn’t sure what was next for me, I didn’t know much about the world of work, and I wouldn’t have known how to write a CV or how to act in an interview. Thanks to the programme, I now understand how to do these things and I feel much more prepared.
“I’ve been discussing college courses and I’m feeling really excited about what options are out there for me. I’d love to study drama or film and I’m looking forward to visiting different colleges to learn more about the full-time options.”
Director of ENABLE Works, Ashley Ryan said:“Stepping Up is the only programme of its kind in Europe and now operates in over 75 schools across Scotland, making a real difference to the lives of thousands of young people.
“We were very pleased to have welcomed Mr Hepburn to Wester Hailes High School to see first-hand the impact the programme is having on disabled young people, to overcome any barriers that can prevent a positive transition from school into adulthood.
“Helping equip young people with learning disabilities with the confidence and skills they need to positively progress into employment or further education is invaluable, and we hope this early intervention will help to close the disability employment gap that exists in Scotland.”
Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education, Youth Employment and Training, said: “It has been inspiring to hear about the vital work that ENABLE does to connect disabled young people to fair work, education and productive activities designed to support a successful transition into adult life and work.
“The Scottish Government is committed to supporting organisations, such as ENABLE, to ensure that people with additional support needs are given a wealth of opportunities.
“I look forward to learning more about the progress of the Stepping Up programme.”
For more information on the Stepping Up programme please contact the ENABLE Works team on enable.works@enable.org.uk or 0300 0200 101.
STRIKE: THURSDAY 8 DECEMBER – STUDENTS TO STAY AT HOME
Dear Parents and Carers
Due to employee rights around industrial action, we are unable to collate accurate information around the number of teacher colleagues who will be striking on Thursday 8th December in advance. We are aware that some non-striking colleagues may take action in support of striking colleagues.
As such we will make the following adaptations to the delivery of Learning and Teaching:
All students should stay at home and will receive live online lessons
Live online lessons will be made available by non-striking teachers
This will require children to have their own device, preferably the iPad provided by school, and to log on at the usual time for lessons.
If no teacher or work is available due to strike action, learners can use
Contingency Learning Grids available on the CEC webpage.
Alternative forms of learning (e-sgoil, Click etc), available on the CEC webpage.
Learning resources provided by individual teachers across subject areas.
A free school meal will be available for eligible pupils to collect from school during lunch time.
Pupils entitled to a free school meal should report to the school at 13.05-13.30 to collect their meal.
Please use the main front doors for entry and exit. Staff will be on duty to assist.
The national day of strike action over pay will be the first such action in Scotland’s schools for four decades – a clear indication of the current level of anger and frustration amongst teachers.
Following the announcement of the ballot result at lunchtime yesterday, the EIS Executive Committee held a special meeting and agreed an initial day of national strike action two weeks from today. Further industrial action dates will be agreed at a normal meeting of EIS Executive tomorrow.
EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The EIS will be calling its members in all of Scotland’s schools out on strike action on Thursday 24 November, in the first day of national strike action on pay for almost forty years.
“We hoped not to get to this point and have given local authorities and the Scottish Government ample time to come up with a fair pay offer. But, with a pay-rise for teachers now more than seven months late, and with the last pay offer having been rejected by teachers almost three months ago, the blame for this move to strike action sits squarely with COSLA and the Scottish Government.
“They have sat on their hands for far too long, dithering and delaying while the soaring cost of living continues to erode the value of their pitiful offers to Scotland’s teachers.”
Ms Bradley added, “Teachers do not take strike action lightly, but have voted to do so in light of the continuing steep real-terms decline in their pay. Politicians who have lauded the invaluable work of teachers throughout the pandemic and during the ongoing period of recovery are now offering teachers a deep real-terms pay cut.
“This will never be acceptable to Scotland’s teachers or to the EIS, and that is why Scotland’s teachers will be taking strike action two weeks from today.”
Information on further strike action dates will be issued in due course.
