Coronavirus has closed all Scottish schools from this weekend, but what about this year’s exams?

The Scottish exams are due to start on Monday 27 April, but yesterday it was announced that exams in England had been cancelled following the decision to close schools there.

This afternoon, Scotland’s education secretary and deputy first minister, John Swinney, will make a statement on the impact of school closures, including what it means for Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exams, amid growing speculation that the exams will be cancelled.

How will coronavirus affect exams?

So, what are his choices when he gets up to speak sometime after 1.45pm?

Mr Swinney was asked about this in Parliament on Tuesday, and said he had three options, which he described like this:

Option 1 “First, the exam diet could proceed. Currently, that is the intention and it is the SQA’s position.”

Option 2 “Secondly, the exam diet could be delayed until later in the year. That would cause significant disruption, but we are facing significant disruption.”

Option 3 “Thirdly, the SQA could undertake some form of accreditation of learning, based on available evidence, which would include a collection of course work, prelim results and estimations based on teacher judgment that are routinely submitted to the SQA.”

On Tuesday, he added: “The current intention is that the SQA exam diet will continue as planned and will commence on 27 April.”