The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Teachers hit by ‘national scandal’ as full details of Higher exam delayed
life chances of a generation of Scottish young people.
“The school year started back in June and teachers have to work at full throttle to fit in the course content. How on earth are these students meant to catch up now?”
He added: “Education chiefs in Dundee are citing the constant turmoil in the secondary exams as one reason for declining results... behind the numbers are people who are missing opportunities that they will never get back.”
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA), said teachers normally know the content of course and specimen questions a year in advance.
He said the delays were caused by the Scottish Government demanding immediate changes to Higher courses, which meant unit assessments were scrapped and, in many cases, longer exams introduced.
Mr Searson said the delays make it harder for schools to teach pupils the necessary methods of correctly answering exam questions.
He said: “If you know the content and what questions pupils have to answer then you can get pupils to practise the whole way through the year.
“Having them so late doesn’t help anybody, the pupils or the teachers.
“These are major changes. The stress and workload of youngsters has been added to.”
An SQA spokesman said the specimen questions will be published today.
He said: “The timetable for publication of information relating to Higher changes was agreed and published in January 2018.
“Course specifications, specimen papers and course reports for all subjects will be available by the end of September, as per the agreed and published timetable.
“In some cases, subject information has been published earlier than previous years.
“The course specification for Higher history – the mandatory information that teachers and lecturers need to prepare and teach the course – was published on April 30 2018, prior to the start of the 2018-19 session.”
He added: “It was clearly communicated that there would be no changes to the course content.
“The coursework task for Higher history was published in July.
“Schools, colleges, teachers and lecturers were informed of the publication schedule and availability of these documents through a number of channels, including an audio presentation in May, and the National Qualifications Support Team, made up of teachers, lecturers and subject associations.
“A number of events for Higher history teachers, where the changes to assessment will be covered, are to be held next month.”