The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is seeking help to shape the organisation that is due to replace it in autumn 2025.
Teachers, students and parents are being invited to join “partnership panels” as part of an SQA scheme called Your Voice, which is designed to “directly influence” the qualifications and assessments overseen by the new body, Qualifications Scotland.
This is a big part of the SQA’s efforts to “reset relationships” with teachers and students and “win back their trust”, as set out in its recent corporate plan, A Prospectus for Change.
Making things better for other teachers
The SQA says that those who sign up to a panel will “tell SQA what they think, shape decisions and services that affect them, contribute to the development of Qualifications Scotland, and make things better for other learners and educators”.
SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson said that Your Voice had been inspired by hearing directly from teachers and students.
Ms Robertson said that, after a year in which she and her colleagues had visited dozens of schools in almost every one of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, the message from teachers, school leaders and students was clear: “They have told us that they want a greater voice in decision making.”
A Prospectus for Change, she added, included a “key commitment to ensuring that every learner and educator has an equal opportunity to have their voice heard”.
Your Voice panels will allow members to “share their insights and directly influence the development of our qualifications and assessments”.
Once signed up, participants will be emailed to invite them to share their views on different topics and issues. They will generally be asked to take part in short online surveys, lasting 5-10 minutes, and may also be invited to join focus groups or interviews.
The SQA said: “Their views will be used to inform decision making as well as help shape Qualifications Scotland.”
SQA’s recent difficulties
The SQA has repeatedly made headlines in recent months over concerns surrounding the marking of Higher history in 2024.
Last week, meanwhile, data from an SQA survey suggested that school staff had falling levels of trust in the body, although there were some year-on-year improvements. When asked “how strongly would you agree or disagree that SQA can be trusted?”, 55 per cent of school staff either “agreed” or “strongly agreed”; in 2023, the figure was 69 per cent.
Teachers, students and parents can sign up to the Your Voice panels on the SQA website.
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