Scottish teachers have reacted angrily to the changes to courses and exams being proposed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), saying they are inadequate, lack insight, have come far too late and take no account of the teaching and learning time lost due to coronavirus.
The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) has hit out at the SQA’s failure to remove content from all subjects despite the fact that - owing to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown - pupils have missed out on a significant chunk of teaching time.
In a response to SQA consultations on proposed changes to exams and courses - to which more than 23,000 people have responded - the SSTA highlighted the “inequity” between different subjects, saying pupils studying sciences and maths at Higher are not being given any concessions under the current proposals, whereas pupils studying other subjects had “much more assessment/content removed”.
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The union added that pupils self-isolating due to coronavirus symptoms, or coronavirus contact tracing, were being placed at “a huge disadvantage” - and even suggested they might feel under pressure to go against safety advice and attend school “to avoid missing vital continuous assessment tests”.
The SSTA wrote: “Following the disruption arising from pandemic restrictions, we are currently in a critical period for the educational recovery of young people. The proposed changes to the exams for 2020/21 by the SQA are inadequate, lack insight, take no account of the inequity of online learning, and are proposed far too late.”
It added: “There is a good deal less teaching time available. This must be recognised. The teaching time available for all classes has been reduced. Sanitising procedures and split lunches/ intervals are reducing teaching time by as much as an hour every day. The time reduction for each subject should be comparable and should be quantified.”
The Institute of Physics - whose response to the SQA consultation Tes Scotland has also seen - criticised the body for making “no allowance for disruption to learning and teaching”.
It welcomed the 30-minute reduction to the end of year exam for Higher physics but warned the impact of not reducing course content for pupils would be “a cramming year” where students had to go through “all the content at a high pace and their learning will be only superficial”.
It added that other “potential harmful outcomes” were “some students do not finish the course or some content is left out”.
The organisation said that this could “invalidate” the exam results “as they will be based as much on chance (what content you happened to cover) rather than on capability.”
The Institute of Physics wrote: “The possibility of further disruption during 2020-2021, through local lockdowns, or national lockdowns due to a second wave, remains very real. The Institute considers strongly that sensible preventative arrangements must be made now to mitigate against further disadvantage for these students, rather than relying on a last-minute approach should major disruptions re-occur.
“The Institute of Physics considers SQA’s proposals for Physics, and indeed across the Stem subjects more broadly, do not go far enough in addressing the huge change in students’ experience and the need to maximise the time for high-quality teaching and learning in the 2020-2021 courses in the time remaining.”
It called for the Higher physics assignment to be removed; a reduction in sampled content in the examination paper to be considered; optional questions and adjustments to the format of the examination paper to be considered, and for the SQA to make “explicit their commitment to practical science”
The SQA consultations on changes to the exams and courses - which were launched on Friday 14 August and ran for less than a fortnight - have already been criticised by parents’ organisation, Connect, which branded them “gobbledygook” and hit out at the exam body’s lack of creativity and radical thinking.
All confirmed modifications to course assessments and the 2021 exam timetable are expected to be released next week.
An SQA spokesperson said: “More than 23,000 people, including 5,000 learners, parents and carers, provided responses to our two consultations [on 2020-21 courses]. We have also engaged directly with learners.
“Thanks to all practitioners, young people, parents, carers and other organisations who replied.
“The feedback is now being analysed and we will publish the outcomes as soon as possible.”
