Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of abandoning her flagship pledge to eliminate the education gap between rich and poor as it emerged there has been little improvement in key subjects over the past six years.
The first minister asked in 2016 to be judged on her progress closing the attainment gulf in schools but the latest results show that basic literacy among deprived S3 pupils has fallen to the lowest level in six years.
Around 77 per cent of poorer pupils achieved level three literacy benchmarks, which include fluent reading and correct spelling, compared with more than 93 per cent of affluent children, creating a record attainment gap of 16.3 percentage points.
