The EIS teaching union’s submission to the review of assessment and qualifications paints an unflattering picture of the secondary education system in Scotland.
Since the implementation a decade ago of national qualifications, which were supposed to chime with Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), it says students and teachers in upper secondary have been “locked into a system dominated by high stakes external exams, and driven by external data demands”.
This, the EIS adds, has “backwashed” into the broad general education and primary schools with the collation of [Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels] data”.
The consequences are described as “stark”, including: “excessive workload and stress, for both learners and teachers”; “an unhealthy, competitive culture that values exam ‘success’ to the exclusion of much else that matters”; and “the downgrading of quality learning and teaching in favour of cramming and rote learning for exam success”.
These issues were also raised in the 2021 review of the implementation of CfE carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. It highlighted fundamental flaws in the implementation of CfE - including a wide divide between its aspirations and the demands of the heavily exams-based system in the latter part of secondary school.
Similarly, research published by the University of Stirling earlier this year found pressure to drive up attainment was “invariably taking precedence” over the aspirations of CfE.
So, how do we fix the system? The independent review of qualifications and assessment set out a potential alternative approach in March when it published its interim report.
It advocated for an end to exams three years in a row and for courses to typically span two years, with an exit exam. It also called for the creation of a “Scottish Diploma of Achievement” (SDA) so that a broader range of success could be recognised. Traditional subjects or curricular areas still feature but it is envisaged that the SDA will also give pupils the chance to record wider achievements, in the likes of sport or drama, as well as the chance to undertake in-depth projects that cut across subject silos.
In response to the consultation on the proposals - shared exclusively with Tes Scotland - the EIS says it welcomes the SDA and “an attempt to broaden the scope of what we value in learning”, but it sets out a number of prerequisites for successful implementation. These can be summarised under six headings:
1. Overhaul the use of attainment data
The union hits out at the “competitive culture” in Scottish education “where schools are forced to seek to amass more “5 at” passes than their real-life or ‘virtual’ comparators”, for fear they will be “held “accountable” for what is perceived as failure”. This, says the EIS, has a “real-life impact...on the learning experience for young people” who are “steered towards a narrowing band of qualifications that will bring such ‘success’, and which will improve the school’s data attainment profile, at the expense of genuinely rich, broad and deep learning, with genuine learner choice”.
It calls for “an urgent overhaul of the use of attainment data in educational settings” and for the reformed system to make it impossible for “sections of the media” to “disgracefully brand” schools - which are often serving “economically devastated neighbourhoods with myriad complex social issues” - “Scotland’s worst schools”.
It says “this data-driven, top-down accountability culture” should be “replaced with one in which teachers and school staff are given the resources, time, professional trust and autonomy to translate ambition into reality”.
2. Challenge Scotland’s ‘powerful exam-centric culture’
The EIS says that Scotland’s secondary schools are “dominated by a powerful exam-centric culture”. For the proposed changes to be effective, “they must be accompanied by actions to challenge that culture”.
It highlights that the last qualifications overhaul a decade ago was supposed to get rid of the so-called “two-term dash”, with a move to two-year courses and exit exams. That didn’t happen and “is a salutary warning as to how ingrained the exam-centric culture, and its associated data drive, is”, says the EIS.
It suggests this happened because schools were “not given sufficient time, resources and support to consider change and potential alternative curricular designs”, so they continued with what was “known and familiar, albeit heavily flawed”.
3. Properly resource reform
For too long, teachers have been expected to deliver innovation with no additional resources, says the EIS. It calls for class sizes of 20 across the board, “so all young people are to be supported to achieve an SDA that reflects their individual achievements”, and also less class contact time for teachers “to facilitate the richer, deeper and broader learning experience envisaged by CfE”.
It says that, on paper, there is “a vast array of qualifications available, spanning all categories and providing scope for personalisation, choice and the integration of so-called academic and vocational learning”. But it adds: “In reality though, school timetables and staffing resource can rarely offer more than a fraction of this.”
4. Achievable timelines for implementation
“A reprise of the rushed implementation of [the National Qualifications] a decade ago must also be avoided”, says the EIS. As it wants to see “significant change in the system”, timelines for implementation will have to be “rational” and “achievable” and “prioritise change in a measured and balanced way”.
“Botched implementation” of the national qualifications from 2013-14 came about because of “an institutional-political imperative to implement quickly”, teachers’ voices were ignored and “an educational catastrophe” unfolded.
5. Appropriate professional learning
The EIS says: “All teachers must be supported with time and resources for professional learning to adapt to a new system of assessment and qualifications.” It calls for “meaningful moderation activities” and support for teachers who specialise in careers education “to engage in professional learning around the range of qualifications that are on offer from awarding bodies, with a view to building alternative, more coherent pathways for learners within their school communities and beyond”.
6. Reform inspection
The EIS would “envisage the reform of the current inspection process”. It says “a model of practitioner-led evaluation that features professional collaboration and learning across settings” should replace the current regime, with schools “able to seek assistance in going about their work from the relevant national agencies”. It adds that “an immediate step the EIS would advocate for is for school inspections to cease using scores in their reports. These, combined with the publication of attainment data, create a toxic brew.”
