SNP Accused Over Slow Progress in Exam Passes for Poorer Pupils

Ministers in Scotland are facing intense criticism over the sluggish increase in exam passes by teenagers from deprived areas despite repeated promises to greatly improve performance.

- Severin Carrell

Opposition parties said progress in closing the attainment gap—the difference between exam passes for pupils from the wealthiest areas and the most deprived—was too slow and too patchy.

In 2016, Nicola Sturgeon, then the first minister, published a legislative programme with the promise that "substantially eliminating" the attainment gap by 2026 would be her government's "defining mission".