Outcomes of immigrant children in Scotland under Curriculum for Excellence

Abstract

The introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in Scotland aimed to better prepare young people for the demands of the 21st-century workplace and citizenship (Scottish Government, 2009). However, our recent Nuffield-funded study (Shapira et al., 2023) found that CfE led to fewer subjects being studied in the senior phase of secondary education. This reduction disproportionately affected schools located in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. Immigrant children, who often live and attend schools in such areas, rely heavily on school resources (Arnot et al., 2014; Crul et al., 2017). For them, a restricted ability to explore diverse subjects and acquire a wide knowledge base can have a more negative impact than for non-immigrant peers, both in terms of educational attainments and broader outcomes that indicate how well young people are prepared to succeed in the complex modern world.