In 2023, researchers from the University of Stirling revealed that the introduction of Scotland’s brave new curriculum had led to a narrowing of options for pupils.

Their three-year investigation found that “S4 students (typically aged 15 to 16) were studying fewer subjects than before the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was introduced”, and that “those attending schools in areas of high deprivation were more adversely affected than their peers in less deprived areas.”

As with so much in education, this was confirming what those with an insight into the system already knew – and indeed what many had warned would happen when the new qualifications were being incompetently introduced just a few years earlier.

Since that research was published, the stories I’ve heard suggested that things were getting worse, with options for some – but not all – pupils being further constrained, and teachers forced to work under increasingly difficult conditions.

But despite knowing this, I couldn’t easily prove it, because despite all the talk about openness and transparency in education, the data just did not exist. Frustrated by this glaring gap, as well as the attitude of some councils, I decided to use FOI to try to finally build a full, or at least fuller, picture of what is going on in high schools.

What I found didn’t surprise me, which makes it all the more depressing.

Long story short, there are enormous variations in the courses, and therefore the opportunities, available to students in Scotland, with differences seen both across and within councils. What’s more, the data........

© Herald Scotland