Scotland’s secondary school leaders say they “completely reject” proposals that appeals against grades for national qualifications this year should be handled by schools and colleges.
School Leaders Scotland (SLS) also hit out at the wording of one of the questions in the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) consultation on three potential models for dealing with appeals, saying any answer to one of the questions was “predicated on an acceptance of either model 1 or model 2” - both of which place the onus on schools to handle appeals, at least in the first instance.
Model 3 would see appeals being directed to the SQA.
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The SQA has already been accused of framing its consultation to make it look like centre-based (that is, schools- and colleges-based) appeals are the preferred option of the National Qualifications 2021 Group, which is made up of several key education bodies.
Question three of the SQA consultation asks: “If the result of the initial appeal is determined by the learner’s school or college, is there a need for some learners to be able to further appeal to SQA? If so, under which circumstances?”
SLS says that while it has answered “yes” to the question, it rejects models 1 and 2.
In its submission to the consultation, shared with Tes Scotland, SLS says: “Within any consultation process, it is prejudicial to the interpretation of responses to ask questions the answer to which is predicated on the acceptance of any part of the proposal which respondents have already rejected. For clarity: we reject models 1 and 2 and any appeal should be to, and in the anticipation of a response from, SQA.”
The body says that it expects that schools will have “ongoing conversations and communication with candidates” over April, May and June, so pupils know why “in the judgement of a teacher, supported by the school” a particular grade has been arrived at.
The submission continues: “If teachers and schools fulfil the roles and responsibilities expected of them, in using the standards to arrive at a provisional result based on evidence of demonstrated attainment, then it is the role of SQA to act as arbiter in any appeal over the probity and effectiveness of a process which has already been checked and authenticated by the school.”
It concludes: “Within this rationale, we completely reject models 1 and 2, and see merit in model 3.”
The suggestion that schools should run appeals has already been rejected by Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, which also took exception to the way the SQA consultation was worded.
It said that in meetings of the National Qualifications 2021 Group - the body that is responsible for determining qualifications arrangements for 2020-21 - the SQA had been clear that it was “keen for the [appeals] process to largely sit with schools and colleges”.
Responding to the EIS’ comments last week, a SQA spokesperson said no decision had been taken yet and that the consultation sought views “on a range of draft proposals”.
The spokesperson added: “We want to hear from teachers, lecturers, parents, carers, learners and other stakeholders, to inform final proposals. The consultation runs until 26 March, following which we will work with partners, including the EIS [teaching union], to agree and publish the final appeals process in early May.”
