Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said there is “no evidence” of teachers’ grades being changed “on the insistence of schools” that historical patterns of attainment should be applied.

Ms Somerville defended the integrity of the assessment system this year, in a wide-ranging interview with Tes Scotland.

She also promised teachers that the reform of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Education Scotland - promised earlier this month - would be fundamental and not just an exercise in rebranding.

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On the SNP manifesto commitment to reduce the time teachers spend in front of classes by one and a half hours per week, she said this was “a priority for the government” and was being taken “very seriously”, but would not commit to a timetable and said it would not happen in time for the new school year.

Ms Somerville also clarified that while the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) review of Curriculum for Excellence is due to be published on Monday - and she will make a statement to Parliament responding to it on Tuesday - a separate review of qualifications is not expected until the autumn.

Earlier this month, Tes Scotland revealed that “most” councils were developing “bespoke data-analysis tools” for schools so that provisional results could be analysed “against three-year or five-year trends from historical data”, according to an Education Scotland report.

That sparked concerns that the government’s promise that this year’s results would be based on teacher judgement - not a school’s past performance in exams - was being overturned.

Then, last Friday at the EIS teaching union’s annual general meeting, general secretary Larry Flanagan said that he had received emails citing examples “where departments have been told to unilaterally adjust their estimates, often based on comparisons with previous years’ performance”.

However, speaking to Tes Scotland yesterday, Ms Somerville said that Education Scotland had investigated and found no evidence of schools “asking a teacher, or instructing a teacher, to change a grade”.

She said that schools were entitled to challenge teacher judgements as part of the quality assurance process - as long as the teacher retained the final say over grades.

She said: “There were concerns raised at the EIS conference, which were then followed up by Education Scotland, and there was no evidence found that there were actually changes being made to grades on the insistence of schools.

“I did say at the conference, and I say again, if teachers have examples of this happening then, absolutely, they should be raised, and could be raised in confidence, for example, with Education Scotland, because we would take that very seriously. But the concerns that we’ve had so far, when they’ve been investigated, have not shown any evidence of schools asking a teacher or instructing a teacher to change a grade.

“Schools are perfectly entitled, through the quality assurance process, to ensure that staff are aware of previous attainment but, if a staff member still judges that a pupil’s demonstrated attainment deserves a certain grade, then that is what should be happening.

“But, as I said, at the EIS conference, I take very seriously teachers’ concerns on this and that’s why that was followed up after the EIS conference.”

Ms Somerville - who has been in the job for almost a month but, as a result of coronavirus restrictions, has been unable to visit a school - said no decision had been taken about how pupils will be assessed next year.

She said the National Qualifications 2021 (NQ21) Group - which has been responsible for designing the model that replaced the exams this year - was also looking ahead to 2022 and that it would be important to build “a system that has contingencies in place”, but no conclusions had been reached.

Ms Somerville said: “I appreciate people would like a decision to happen soon but I hope they would also expect me to make sure that we’re listening to everybody on the into NQ21 Group, including teachers’ representatives, to see what they want to do and then a decision will be made following on from that.”

Ms Somerville said that she was open to exam reform.

She said: “If we invite the OECD and they do a substantive review, as they have done for Curriculum for Excellence and then about the qualifications, it would be utterly remiss not to then take very seriously what they tell us, and what they recommend, or options that they come up with, or whatever they will do for the autumn.

“So I think what I would say is, I’m open to listening to...whatever they come up with, and then discussing those with stakeholders.”

On reform of the SQA and Education Scotland, which she committed to in the Scottish Parliament on 3 June, Ms Somerville answered “yes” when asked if she was willing to promise teachers that change would be fundamental and not just an exercise in rebranding.

One key change, called for regularly over the years - including in the run-up to the Scottish Parliament elections - is for the inspection and curriculum development functions of Education Scotland to be separated, having been brought together when the body was formed as an amalgamation of Learning and Teaching Scotland and the HMIE inspectorate in 2011.

Ms Somerville refused to say if she was supportive of such a move but did say, in her statement to Parliament next Tuesday following the publication of the OECD review of Curriculum for Excellence, that more detail would be revealed about how the reform process will work.

On reducing teachers’ class-contact time by one and a half hours a week, she said: “Obviously the SNCT [Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers] is the body that’s responsible for teachers’ terms and conditions and they are therefore responsible for implementing the changes on class contact time. So, what we’ve done is put this issue on to the SNCT agenda and it will be getting discussed shortly about how this can be achieved.

“Where we are at at this point, is going through the due process to ensure that we’re making it happen. And one of the other reasons we’re very keen to move forward with this is, obviously, a reduction in class contact time will create additional permanent jobs for teachers, as well as helping to reduce teacher workload.”

When asked if it was possible that the change would be in place for August and the start of the new school year, Ms Somerville said: “I think that level of timing might be a tough order.”