Summary

Scotland

Official statistics on education are primarily produced by Scottish Government and by the Scottish Funding Council. Education Scotland and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) conduct reviews of schools and educational institutions to assess their performance and produce school inspection reports.

Scotland publishes statistics on school pupil attendance and absence and school exclusion. For 2024/25, headline statistics with accompanying commentary is included in the School attendance, absence and exclusions statistics 2024-25 publication. In addition, the Scottish Government also provides an interactive dashboard containing Fortnightly School Absence Information for 2025-26, released as management information.

The Scottish education system has increasingly focused on the measurement and management of performance by schools, particularly through the Annual School Pupil Census and the School attendance, absence and exclusions statistics. These statistics include pupil characteristics, class sizes, and attendance data, providing a comprehensive view of school performance. The Pupil and teacher characteristic statistics provide accredited official data on pupil and teacher numbers, characteristics and pupil-teacher ratios.

The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels (ACEL) statistics in Scotland measure the percentage of pupils, in specific stages of education, who have achieved the expected level of learning in literacy and numeracy. These statistics, introduced in 2015, are collected annually to provide a national picture of school performance in publicly funded schools.

Wales

Official statistics on education and skills are produced by Welsh Government, and the Welsh education inspectorate Estyn publishes school inspection reports. Wales publishes fortnightly statistics on the attendance of pupils in maintained schools, supplemented by annual reports such as Attendance and Absence from Schools. These statistics include attendance over time and by pupil characteristics such as sex, free school meal entitlement, age and ethnicity.

In Wales, examination results over time at GCSE and A level are summarised by the annual examination results release published by Welsh Government. The School Census Results are an annual statistical release providing data on the number of schools and pupils by sector, pupil characteristics. Staffing and workforce data is published annually in the School Workforce Census results release.

Introduced from 2022, the Curriculum for Wales is a purpose-led framework, which replaces traditional key stages with a single continuum of learning from nursery to age 16.

Things to consider

When comparing school performance over time, caution is needed as each nation uses different systems and measures of performance. These differing approaches mean that broad comparisons across long time periods may not fully reflect the nuanced nature of changes in each education system. For example, changes to assessment frameworks and curriculum reforms such as Scotland’s CfE and Wales’ Curriculum for Wales are likely to have influenced reported trends in both nations. Users should also consider wider population changes, such as rising or falling pupil numbers.

In Scotland, the ACEL statistics were introduced in 2015 to replace the Scottish Survey of Numeracy and Literacy. This means that it is not possible to compare performance in numeracy and literacy before and after 2015.

In Wales, the paper-based National Reading and Numeracy Tests have been replaced by adaptive online Personalised Assessments starting in the 2018/19 academic year. Although the format differs and outcomes are not comparable with previously published data, the Welsh Government has published analysis that examines trends in reading and numeracy attainment from 2018/19 to the present.

UK comparability

It can be difficult to compare students’ educational outcomes across the UK because each nation has its own education system, and most measures are not directly comparable. There are several ways that educational performance is compared across the UK and between the UK and other countries in international studies:

• OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
• OECD’s Education at a Glance publication (EAG)
• The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s two studies Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Wales and Scotland are participating in the next cycle of both the TIMSS and PIRLS.

In the latest PISA results (PISA 2022), several countries including Wales, Northern Ireland and England did not meet all of the OECD’s data response requirements, which might have impacted their scores and rankings.

When comparing countries’ performance over time, it is important to consider the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. Varying methods were used to award grades during  Covid-19  across the UK. Therefore, comparisons of exam results across UK countries over the last few years should be treated with caution. The ‘Qualification headline measures’ section of Department for Education’s Education and Training Statistics for the UK release provides more information on the approaches taken.

What to look out for

• Claims about the proportion of highly rated schools in Scotland and Wales. Inspection frameworks in both Scotland (Education Scotland/HMIE) and Wales (Estyn) have undergone several changes over time. These shifts make long‑term comparisons of inspection outcomes challenging, and users should exercise caution when interpreting trends in the proportion of highly rated schools. Any comparison across extended periods represents a high‑level view that spans substantial changes in the education systems and multiple inspection frameworks, limiting the extent to which inspection outcomes can be directly compared.
• Claims about the reasons behind pupil absence. There are different definitions and measures of pupil absence from school. Both Scotland and Wales use the concept of ‘persistently absent pupils’, defined as pupils who miss more than 10% of sessions (a session being half a day of school) although they are calculated differently. The relevant statistics show that illness is the main reason for, and driver of, school absence in all UK countries. Users should also be aware that comparisons of attendance across years affected by Covid-19 should be treated with caution due to changes in how pupils who did not attend for reasons related to Covid-19 were recorded.
• Claims about the numbers of teachers. Different metrics may give different perspectives on trends in teacher numbers. These metrics include the number of teachers, the number of teachers who left the profession, recruitment of teachers and pupil-to-teacher ratios.
• When interpreting the PISA results, users should be aware that both a score and a rank for each country is calculated. It is possible for one of these metrics to go up even if the other goes down and so using them together will give the fullest picture. PISA results are reported for Wales and Scotland, and contain information on the impact of Covid-19.

Wider support

There are several organisations and research institutions that produce their own analysis on educational performance.

The FFT Education Datalab produces independent research on education policy and practice.

The National Foundation for Education (NFER) produces research of education policy and practice.

The Nuffield Foundation also funds research and development projects relating to education across all life stages.

There are also a number of policy institutes in the education space including the Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Policy Institute.