School leavers in work, training and education at record high

The number of youngsters leaving school and going into work, training or further education has reached a record high, new Scottish Government figures have revealed.

At the end of March this year 91.7% of all pupils who left school in 2013-14 had gone on to one of these “positive destinations” while 8% were unemployed.

This includes 1.5% of school leavers who were out of work and not looking for a job, according to the statistics.

Almost two-thirds of those who left school ended up at college or university, with 63.1% going into either further or higher education, while about a quarter (24.9%) were in work.

Almost three-fifths (58.8%) of school leavers in 2013-14 had passed at least one Higher or Advanced Higher when they finished secondary school – up from 55.8% the previous year.

A total of 39% of school leavers in the most deprived areas achieved this, compared to 34.9% of 2012/13 leavers.

The proportion of youngsters in the most affluent communities passing at least one Higher also rose, going from 77.4% to 79.7%

After free school meals were extended to all pupils in primaries one to three, the number of children eligible to receive them increased to 259,441 – 38.7% of all school children in 2015 compared to 18.8% the previous year.

Almost all schools are meeting the Scottish Government’s target for PE, with 99% of primaries giving children at least two hours of physical education a week and 93% of secondaries providing two sessions.

For those schools which failed to meet the target, one of the main reasons given was lack of facilities.