If ministers don’t invest in the “ageing digital infrastructure” of Scotland’s qualifications body then the ambitions of ongoing education reform will not be realised, MSPs have been warned.
That was the stark message today from Fiona Robertson, chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), as she gave evidence at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee.
Ms Robertson put the cost of bringing the SQA up to date - as it prepares to transform into a new body, Qualifications Scotland, in 2025 - at “probably about £10 million”.
The Scottish government said last week, as it set out plans for a review of qualifications and assessment, that it wanted to “pilot digital on-screen assessment across various subjects, including computing science”.
It also referred to every student having a “digital profile”, and to working with Qualifications Scotland and Education Scotland “to ensure that AI can be used effectively and safely in learning, teaching and assessment”.
SQA ‘needs updated technology’
However, Ms Robertson explained that current SQA systems made even sending an email a risky business.
She blamed the old systems that the SQA continues to use - some of which date back to the 1990s, when the body was first established - for students receiving blank emails on results day.
Some 7,500 students who chose to receive their results by email this year initially received a blank message.
Ms Robertson said the problem had been quickly remedied after being caused by “human error”, the result of “a lot of manual processes and systems in SQA” that carried “risks” with them.
In a letter sent to the committee before today’s meeting, she said: “Not all change requires investment, but some does, particularly where the transformation of digital services and systems are required. SQA operates with an ageing digital infrastructure which inevitably brings risk, and it is therefore vital that Qualifications Scotland has the investment it needs to modernise technology.”
Ms Robertson was giving evidence on the Education (Scotland) Bill, which was published in June, along with interim chief inspector of education, Janie McManus, and the interim chief executive of Education Scotland, Gillian Hamilton.
Questions about the future of SQA leaders
Ms Robertson came under pressure over whether SQA leaders could remain in place when Qualifications Scotland comes into being next year.
Council education leads, secondary school leaders and the children’s commissioner have all warned that if Qualifications Scotland is led entirely by the same people, the Scottish government’s ongoing education reforms will not lead to meaningful change.
Ms Robertson said it was not for her to determine if the current leadership team should remain in place; leadership structures would be looked at by the SQA chair.
SQA staff, she added, had been told by the government that they would have the right to transfer to Qualifications Scotland. This prompted Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie to say there was a difference between having the right to remain in post and deciding whether you should when faced with a “groundswell of demand for change”.
Ms Robertson said the SQA was working hard to win back trust and had been seeking to engage more deeply with learners and teachers. It was “seeing the fruits of that engagement” and was keen to go further and bring about “fundamental reform”.
However, she also pointed out that “tensions” were at times to be expected between educators, learners and an organisation providing qualifications. The SQA was sometimes required “to deliver quite difficult messages”, she added.
Ms Robertson said this should be done “in a culture of engagement and a culture of openness and transparency”.
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