A five-year trend is showing drops in attainment figures across the board for high school pupils in Nithsdale.
A new report on exam results for Nithsdale secondary schools in 2022/23 shows that the proportion of S5 and S6 pupils gaining Highers (level 6 qualification) or Advanced Highers (level 7) have decreased by up to 10 per cent.
The SQA attainment report shows the five-year trend between 2020 and 2024 for secondary schools in Nithsdale, such as Dumfries Academy, Dumfries High, North West Community Campus, Wallace Hall Academy, Sanquhar Academy, and St Joseph’s College.
In 2020, 58.9 per cent of S5 pupils had gained at least one Higher, however this year that figure dropped to 52.9 per cent.
Fifth year pupils gaining at least three Highers stood at 39.4 per cent in 2020, but this had slumped to 33.1 per cent this year.
Meanwhile, the rate of S5 pupils achieving at least five Highers decreased slightly from 16.8 per cent to 16.4 per cent over the same period.
S6 exam results followed a similar pattern, with 69.6 per cent of pupils gaining at least one Higher in 2020, but this had slipped by 9.5 per cent this year.
The number of S6 pupils in Nithsdale achieving at least one advanced Higher qualification stood at 26 per cent in 2020, but dropped to 15.9 per cent this year.
The statistics won’t make for great reading when presented to councillors at Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Nithsdale Area Committee next Wednesday.
However, the picture may looks worse than it really is because pupils were not sitting their tests under normal exam conditions in 2020 – and therefore some results may have been inflated.
The exam arrangements during lockdown in 2020 involved school teachers assessing all National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams internally.
A council spokesman said: “There has been a drop in attainment in Nithsdale over the five-year period, some of which may be attributed to interrupted learning and revised qualification arrangements during and after the
pandemic.
“The pass rate in Scotland has also fallen in recent years. There continues to be a focus both nationally and locally on raising attainment for all learners.”
While the five-year trend for qualifications dropped in all areas for S5 and S6, the year on year stats showed improvement for fifth year pupils in 2024.
The number of pupils gaining at least one higher increased by 1.8 per cent compared to 2023, those achieving at least three Highers rose by 3.4 per cent, and the number of teenagers gaining five or more Highers climbed by five per cent.
However, S6 pupils din not fare so well as rates decreased between 2.9 per cent and 6.1 per cent.