Educashun, educashun, educashun

The question nobody seems to ask - what do we get for all this extra spending? Are Scottish children better able to read or do sums or pass exams? The BBC website reports:

Each school pupil in Scotland receives hundreds of pounds more in education funding than those in England, figures for 2005/06 have revealed.
Almost 12% more was spent on primary school pupils north of the border compared with those in England.
At secondary level, the rate of spending was 24% higher in Scotland.
The Scottish Executive warned against making direct comparisons between the two countries and said the different systems of education played a part.
An average of £4,318 was spent on primary pupils in 2005/06 in Scotland, compared with £3,684 south of the border.
For secondary pupils local authorities spent an average of £5,771, in contrast to £4,638 for England.

Doing comparisons is difficult, I accept, especially when the major comparator has exam systems like this, also described by the BBC:

GCSE grades have improved again, with more top grades being achieved in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
There was a tiny fall in the overall pass rate - entries marked from A* to G. It fell from 98.1% to 98%. The total number of entries rose a little to just over 5.8m.

Imagine that: a pass rate of 98%. Must be quite difficult to fail.