The proportion of Highland school-leavers going to university is officially the second lowest in Scotland.
Figures issued by the Scottish Government on the destination of school students indicate that just 30.7% of pupils from schools in the Highland Council area went on to Higher Education from the class of 2018/19, a decline of 3.4% from the previous year.
Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron said: “Only one out of Scotland’s 32 council areas had a poorer result than Highland.
“I'm very sad to learn of these figures, given the Highlands has always taken pride in the educational achievements of our young people, who appear to have been let down by the system."
“Of course, progression to university is not the only way we can measure the quality of our education system though it does help measure attainment."
“What is particularly concerning is that these are the worst results in a decade."
“There is clearly something going badly wrong with schooling in Scotland with fewer and fewer Scottish children getting into Scottish universities and we are sliding down the league tables internationally."
“The buck stops firmly with the SNP Government. Nicola Sturgeon pledged that education would be her number one priority when she became First Minister. Very sadly for the future prospects of our children, she has a very long way to go before she redeems her pledge.”
The figures referred to can be found in Table L2.1 here: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2020/06/summary-statistics-follow-up-leaver-destinations-no-2-2020-edition/documents/tables/tables/govscot%3Adocument/tables.xlsx
