Details of crucial changes to Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) courses and exams will not be published this week after all, Tes Scotland understands.

The SQA, when announcing on a consultation on proposed changes last month, said it would publish the confirmed changes - which will affect the work and planning of many thousands of teachers - in the week beginning Monday 31 August.

However, it was then inundated with 23,000 responses to its consultation on 2020-21 courses and exams, which was open for about 10 days, closing on 24 August.

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The consultation, which came about following the results debacle last month, was widely criticised for not doing enough to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on schools and colleges this year.

Now, at the end of the week in which the confirmed changes were due to be published, Tes Scotland understands that the plan is now to publish sometime next week, although the precise date remains unclear. It had been thought that publication would happen this morning, but by 5pm there had been no public SQA statement and the SQA has not tweeted from its official account so far today.

The changes to SQA exams and courses affect secondary schools and further education colleges throughout Scotland. Schools in Scotland began returning from the summer break on 11 August, and exam courses typically start several weeks before the summer.

Some responses to the SQA consultation called for radical long-term change and questioned whether there was a need for exams at all.