Scotland's struggles in maths and science are nothing new, but researchers are stressing their importance ahead of the first new set of data in over five years.
A new report analyses Scottish pupils’ performance on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests since 2006.
The PISA tests – administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – assess 15-year-olds in reading, maths and science.
There was a gap in testing between 2018 and 2022. Results of the 2022 session are due next month and will represent the first measurement in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Researchers from The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) highlighted a trend of declining performance –from “high” to “average” – among Scottish pupils in maths and science since 2006.
The report also found significant performance gaps between pupils in the top and bottom socio-economic rankings. In science, the gap is the same as the one that separates the UK from Colombia (91 points).
The performance gap is slightly mitigated by findings that Scotland tracks with most of the 79 other PISA participants around the world.
But there is another silver lining in the results, researchers have said: On a one-off Global Competence test in 2018, Scotland outperformed most other countries and beat the overall average by almost 50 points.
