Head teachers and council officials are to hold talks on the declining National 5 A-C pass rate in Argyll and Bute.
Jennifer Crocket, the council’s head of education, admitted senior officials had ‘concerns’ about the declining pass rate.
Ms Crocket was speaking after official figures revealed the rate for the area declined from 79% in 2019 to 78% in 2022 – the first exam diet after Covid – and then to 76.7% for 2023.
Those figures were recorded despite the area returning a 100% pass rate at National 4 level for the eighth year in a row.
Ms Crocket told councillors that a series of meetings would be held to look at how to boost the pass rate for qualifications in later school years.
Cllr Dougie McFadzean asked the community services committee yesterday: “Having National 4s at 100% for the last eight years seems to be an outlier when the National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher rates more or less come into line with the national picture.
“Can I have an understanding of why we are achieving 100% at that level for eight years, when it seems the rest of the country is not?”
Ms Crocket responded: “Some of our children at National 4 level have additional support needs and have barriers to regular attendance at school.
“I have been part of the authority for about two years, but I know of the work that took place before then on the pathways that are in place.
“If we are obtaining our 100% pass rate at National 4, what about the pass rate at other levels? That is a significant focus in the coming year.
“National 5 is an area where we do have concerns, and we are working closely with head teachers and senior leadership teams.
“This begins with attainment meetings, where we will meet with each individual head teacher and representatives of the senior team, to drill down into the data.
“We are delighted with the progress, but it does beg the question of how we are pushing these young people on.”
Wendy Brownlie, also head of education, added: “Part of our ongoing commitment is securing qualifications for all. National 4 qualifications are a benchmark for levels of literacy and numeracy, and we are really proud that we put so many of our pupils out with a basket of qualifications.
“Sometimes employers do not identify other qualifications, but they understand what a National 4 is. They are used as a fall back position.
“We have a number of pupils who are aspirational and start off on a course which arms them well.
“The school has done all the legwork to ensure a National 4 is already in the basket.”
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