The education secretary has promised an announcement on whether or not Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exams will be going ahead in 2022 “within the next few days” as Scottish pupils and teachers start returning to school this week, following the summer holidays.
Shirley-Anne Somerville told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme today that she wanted to make an announcement on assessment next year “before the rest of the schools go back next week.”
In Scottish schools mitigations such as masks and social distancing are set to remain in place initially, following the summer holidays, but the rules around self-isolation are set to change.
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Last weekfirst minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that rules requiring “blanket isolation” of entire classes are to be relaxed.
In schools, said Ms Sturgeon, “the blanket isolation of whole classes will no longer be routine - instead, a more targeted approach will identify close contacts at the highest risk of infection”.
This, she said, meant “fewer young people will be asked to self-isolate and most will be asked to self-isolate for a much shorter period of time”.
Ms Somerville said that making changes to self-isolation period had been prioritised by the government to minimise disruption to education.
She said that the other mitigations would not remain in place for any longer than was necessary but that it was important that the school environment felt “safe and comfortable” to learn and teach in and that school staff had time to get both doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
Ms Somerville said: “I’ll be making announcement within the next few days about what will be happening with assessments for next year.
She added: “I’m still looking at the final advice that’s coming up on that and I’ll be making announcements soon.
“I will want to be able to do that before the rest of the schools go back next week.”
This year’s SQA results came out yesterday based on the grades assigned by teachers, following in-school assessments, and showed that the pass rate had fallen for National 5; Higher and Advanced Higher. The proportion of A grades awarded, however, hit an all-time high.
