PASS rates have fallen as the class divide in Scottish educational attainment is at its highest on record — nearly a decade after former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called its eradication her “defining mission.”

Ms Sturgeon set the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) in 2015, but Scotland’s poverty-related attainment gap now stands at 17.2 per cent at both Nat 5 and Higher levels, and 15.5 per cent at Advanced Higher, up on the 2019 pre-Covid class divides of 17, 16.9 and 13.2 per cent respectively.

She had appointed First Minister John Swinney as education secretary in 2016 to drive the policy.