The statistics also highlight a wide discrepancy in the results achieved by pupils in Dundee’s secondaries.

They range from Dundee High School, which exceeds the country’s average results by a considerable margin across the board, to Braeview Academy which has the poorest results in the city.

Higher students in S5 and S6 at Braeview fare poorly in comparison with other state-funded schools in the city.

S5 Braeview pupils achieved 1-plus, 3-plus and 5-plus highers in 11%, 3% and 1% of cases.

The best performing state school, Grove Academy, achieved the same results in 59%, 45% and 27% of cases.

For Dundee High School, the figures were 88%, 72% and 50%.

When it comes to S6 pupils, Braeview is in a similar position. Students achieved 3-plus, 5-plus and advanced highers in 5%, 2% and 2% of cases.

For Grove and Dundee High pupils the figures were 49%, 34% and 29% and 77%, 69% and 57% respectively.

At standard grade, Braeview has some competition from Menzieshill High at the bottom of the achievement table but both schools are well behind the city’s other secondaries. Grove again emerges as the best performing state school at this level.

The figures this year are pre-appeal and can’t be compared with previous years.

In every category, however, the 2007-08 Dundee average was well below the average for Scotland as a whole.

In all, there are 90 categories covering 4th, 5th and 6th year pupils and in only 20 of those did pupils manage to better the Scottish average.

In ANGUS, fourth-year attainment was ahead of the national average in every area, but the district’s sixth-year report card revealed a ’could do better’ picture (writes Graham Brown).

S4 exam successes across the district have shown a steady climb over the past few years and at General level the number of pupils achieving five or more awards rose 6% from last year to 80%, four points ahead of the national mean.

At Credit level, the Angus figure also showed an improvement, up from 32% to 36% and 2% above the Scotland-wide statistic.

Sixth-year attainment revealed a worrying continuation of a downward decline, however.

Just 12% of pupils received one or more award at level 7, in keeping with the Scottish average, but 2% below the district figure of just two years ago.

The Angus stats for three or more awards (28%) and five or more awards (18%) at level 6 were also behind both the national figure and the district’s performance in the past two years.

In FIFE, a mixed bag of results was revealed, although performance among S4 pupils has largely improved on the previous year (writes Craig Smith).

Stats showed that the number of S4 pupils achieving five or more awards at Standard Grade Foundation level or better in Fife rose slightly from 89% in 2006/7 to 90% in 2007/8, while the number doing likewise at Credit level also went up from 29% to 30%. Figures for pupils gaining General level passes stayed roughly the same at 74%.

The number of pupils achieiving one or more Higher awards stayed constant at 35%, while the number achieving five or more awards at Higher level did likewise, remaining at 8%.

There was a fall in the number of Fife pupils achieving three or more awards at Higher level, down from 20% last year to 19%, while the percentage of pupils achieving one or more awards at Advanced Higher level stayed the same at 12% and in line with the Scottish average.

S6 level figures weren’t as encouraging, with slight falls for the numbers achieving three or more and five or more Higher awards, although the number obtaining Advanced Higher qualifications remained at 8%.