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Child learning overview

Data is from the 2023 annual school pupil Census, published by Scottish Government in March 2024. 

Missing data for primary schools: primary schools by SIMD and local authority, asylum and refugee status by local authority, language by local authority, and disabillity by local authority. 

Missing data for secondary schools: average class size.

Child learning infographic v2

 Click here to download the Child learning infographic.

In 2022 there were nearly 71,342 children attending Glasgow City Council schools: 40,576 primary school pupils, 29,215 secondary school pupils and 1,551 pupils were enrolled at schools providing additional support for learning. 

Reflecting the increasing diversity of Glasgow’s population, 27% of primary pupils and 25% of secondary pupils were from an ethnic minority background. 5% of primary pupils, and 1% of secondary pupils, had English as a second or new language, and 129 different languages were spoken by Glasgow’s school pupils.

School attendance has dropped since 2018/19, with primary school attendance at 92% and seconday school attendance at 88% in 2022/23. Attendance levels in Glasgow are lower than in neighbouring local authorities in the Glasgow City Region (GCR), except for West Dunbartonshire, and lower than in other Scottish cities, except for Dundee.

School attainment levels in the city’s schools have been rising steadily over the last decade, although Glasgow pupils on average still have lower attainment levels than pupils in other local authorities. Glasgow had the fourth highest level of persistent absence of all of the local authorities in Scotland, with 39% of pupils absent for more than 10% of the school year in 2022/23. 

Since 2009/10, the proportion of school leavers from publicly funded Glasgow schools entering ‘positive destinations’ (higher education, further education, employment, training or voluntary work) has increased from 80% to 93% in 2022/23. There have been particularly notable rises in school leavers going onto higher education. In 2022/23, 38% of school leavers (from publicly-funded secondary schools in Glasgow) went on to higher education, 24% went on to further education and 31% went into employment, training or volunteering.

In making sense of Glasgow's educational performance it is important to be aware that the city has higher levels of deprivation than other local authorities in Scotland, as illustrated in the children's population and children's poverty sections of Understanding Glasgow.  

The data on the Understanding Glasgow website comes from a variety of administrative sources and surveys, and the frequency of updates to these sources varies. The graphs and text on each page should indicate the period to which an indicator refers.