The number of youngsters from the poorest parts of Scotland leaving school with at least one Higher has increased - but is still just over half the rate of pupils from the least-deprived communities who do so.

In the most-deprived areas, 42.7% of those leaving school in 2015-16 had a minimum qualification of one Higher, up by 1.5 points from 41.2% the previous year.

However, in the most-affluent parts of the country 81.2% of school leavers in 2015-16 had one Higher or more, a rise of 0.9 points from 2014-15.

Education Secretary John Swinney accepted there was "still more to do" to increase attainment for all youngsters - but said reforms announced last week were aimed at tackling the problem.

He spoke as new figures from the Scottish Government showed the proportion of school leavers from the most-deprived areas going on to positive destinations - such as work, training, college or university - had fallen from 86.3% in 2014-15 to 85% in 2015-16.

The number of leavers from better-off areas doing this also dropped marginally over the same period, from 96.3% to 96.2% - and across all school leavers there was a decrease from 92% to 91.4%.

There was also a slight increase in the proportion of teenagers who ended up unemployed after leaving school, going from 7.3% to 7.7% last year.

Almost two-fifths (37.3%) of youngsters who finished school in 2015-16 went on to higher education, at either college or university, while 22.4% went on to further education college and more than a quarter (28.7%) found work.

Overall, the number of school leavers with at least one Higher increased to 61.7% - up from 60.2% in 2014-15 and compared to 55.7% in 2012-13.

Only 15% of children in care left school with this level of qualification while 40% of this group had passed a National 5 exam or a Standard Grade at credit level - an increase from just 15% in 2009-10.

Mr Swinney said: "It is encouraging to see the number of young people attaining qualifications at higher level or above increasing - and I am particularly pleased to see a notable improvement in the proportion of young people who are looked-after and care-experienced gaining a qualification.

"While this is a step in the right direction, there is still more to do to close the gap between our most and least vulnerable children, and raise attainment for all.

"That is what the reforms I announced last week are designed to do.

"By giving more power to schools, including more direct control over budgets, we will empower schools to target resources where they are needed the most to improve the life chances of all of our children and young people."

Girls were slightly more likely than boys to go on to a positive destination after school, with this being the case for 92.2% of female leavers and 90.6% of male leavers.

The ethnic group with most youngsters in a positive destination was Asian Indian at 96.9%, compared to 91.3% for pupils classed as white Scottish.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott said the "grim" figures should be a "stark warning" to ministers.

He stated: "The attainment gap between rich and poor is stuck in Scotland. This is the price for a decade of nationalist inaction.

"The First Minister has made education the central platform of this government but these latest figures demonstrate that our education system is falling further and further behind.

"In the rest of the UK, a pupil premium has been in force since 2011 which gives extra money to schools to help raise attainment by pupils from poorer backgrounds.

"The SNP rejected that policy for five years. Today's grim statistics show that the SNP were wrong."

Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the number of young people going on to positive destinations after school "is one of the First Minister's go-to statistics when she is under pressure" on education.

But the Tory MSP said Ms Sturgeon could no longer say that is increasing and added: "What's more the likelihood of a school-leaver ending up at university, college, training or work is still far too dependent on their background.

"No real improvement has been made on that front either, and the SNP is running out of excuses about why that is."

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray branded the statistics "yet another black mark against the SNP's record on education".

He said: "Nicola Sturgeon promised to make education her top priority. Instead the gap between the richest and the poorest has grown as opportunities for school leavers are closed off.

"Young people, especially those from the poorest backgrounds, are being failed by an SNP government which has made a mess of education policy in Scotland."