Teachers should let the SQA’s consultation on its proposals for changes to exams and courses - which one union has branded “inadequate” - run its course before making judgements, the first minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon was responding to a question posed by Tes Scotland during this afternoon’s daily coronavirus briefing.
The question - which focussed on whether Scotland is sleepwalking into another exams fiasco - was prompted by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the SQA’s consultation on its proposals, not just from teachers but also from secondary heads and parents.
The proposals - due to be finalised next week - are supposed to set out changes to assessment and exams that will “free up teaching time” and help schools “cope with any disruptions in the coming months”.
However, the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) hit out at the body for carrying out modifications on a subject-by-subject basis. This had led to “inequity”, it said, and meant some subjects - including science and maths Higher courses - had had no content removed despite “a good deal less teaching time available”.
The Institute of Physics said the failure to reduce course content in Higher physics risked turning 2020-21 into “a cramming year” where learning would be “superficial” and some students might not even complete the course - leaving them at a disadvantage when it came to the exam.
School Leaders Scotland, meanwhile, highlighted the SQA’s failure to future proof the qualifications in its response, asking “What plans are there in the event of another national or a local lockdown?”.
When presented with the concerns - and reminded that failing to listen to teachers had led to this year’s results debacle - Ms Sturgeon said it was not yet clear if the SQA’s process was working because it was still to be completed.
She added that it was not for ministers to decide the content of courses - and that was for “the educational experts to do”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “This is an SQA consultation that has just closed. You have just read out extracts from a number of, I assume, responses to that consultation. The SQA now will assess all of the responses and put forward their proposals on the back of that and I think we should probably allow that process to run its course before making judgements about whether it’s doing what people want.
“The only other point I would make at this stage is it’s not for ministers to decide the content of particular courses in the curriculum, that’s for the educational experts to do, but I do think given that the consultation has just closed, that there have been a number of responses made that you have just reflected there, allow that process to continue, allow the SQA to reflect on those responses, and set out its response to that and it’s proposals on the back of the consultation.”
The first minister was also asked during the briefing if heads should roll in Scotland over this year’s results, which saw the government forced to apologise to pupils and scrap for the system of moderation put in place by the SQA.
In England, Sally Collier resigned from her role as head of England’s exams regulator Ofqual after standardisation processes there proved equally disastrous, and yesterday it was announced Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary in the UK’s Department for Education, was stepping down.
Ms Sturgeon said she saw no need for “fresh leadership” in Scottish education, adding that in Scotland ministers had taken responsibility for the results fiasco, while in England “civil servants have been left to carry the can”.
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