Pass rates improving ‘because of easy exams’

Expert’s warning over decline in standards amid calls for a probe into the latest results

PUPILS are performing better in Highers because the tests are easier, according to an education expert.

Lindsay Paterson, professor of education at Edinburgh University, claims an improvement in attainment for the exams sat in S5 and S6 is due to a fall, rather than a rise, in standards.

Highers were one of the only areas of Scotland’s education system to have seen an improvement in pass rates this year, with growing concerns over the country’s plummeting attainment.

However, Professor Paterson said that more youngsters were gaining Highers because they had become easier.

He said: ‘We no longer expect the same rigour as we did in the past and the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s obsession with pass rates, which have broadly

‘No longer expect the same rigour’

remained the same over the past decade, has led to a decline in standards.

‘When the current batch of people taking Highers were in the second year of secondary school, their attainment was no better than students a decade before and probably worse.

‘We know that from the now-abolished Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy and its predecessors. The tests in these surveys were designed to be comparable over the years, so that evidence is reliable.’

Last week, it was revealed exam attainment has plummeted by more than a third in some areas since the introduction of the SNP’s school curriculum – with pass rates at a four-year low.

Pressure has been building on Education Secretary John Swinney after a significant drop in pass rates for certain qualifications such as National 4 and National 5 – with critics calling for an investigation.

Scottish Conservative education spokesman Liz Smith, said: ‘This year’s SQA results have clearly prompted a great deal of further analysis about recent trends in pass marks and grade boundaries, with some suggesting Highers are getting easier all the time.

‘I think we need to be careful not to generalise too much but teachers are reporting concerns in some subjects for which they do not believe the Higher is sufficiently rigorous.

‘A major part of the concern is, of course, the fact that under the SNP there is not sufficient good-quality data available to allow us to accurately measure all the relevant trends in education. That is surely something that must be addressed as a matter of urgency.’

Experts have blamed the SNP’s controversial Curriculum for Excellence for the plunge in attainment – claiming it has led to a narrowing of subject choice, with the number of children sitting exams in modern languages dropping in recent years.

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray believes government failures, such as enforcing cuts in school budgets, standardised testing and growing discontent among teachers has contributed to the problems. He said: ‘He [Mr Swinney] should ask the education committee to launch an investigation into worrying trends in exam results and if he will not, they should investigate anyway.’

But Mr Swinney says youngsters can sit a ‘broader’ range of qualifications and denied exams were becoming easier. ‘Our focus is on a young person’s achievement at the end of their senior phase and the long-term trends shows a greater proportion of young people staying on,’ he said.

‘Young people are gaining a broader range of qualifications and the proportion of young people leaving school with qualifications has increased in recent years.

‘SQA qualifications are highly regarded, largely due to the rigorous application of standards to ensure they have the same value year-on-year.’