Exams ‘‘out of date’ and should be phased out
Secondary exams like National 5s and Highers are “out-of-date” and should be phased out, with more use of teacher estimates for qualifications, a report by international experts has found.
The corona virus pandemic ,which has resulted in Scotland's exams diet being cancelled this year and next, has exposed "underlying issues" with the current system, according to the International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA).
The body also warns that physical schools will always be essential and Scotland must not become "over-exuberant" about shifting to a greater system of blended and remote learning even after the pandemic.
A review of the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE) should also be undertaken, the report states, a decade after the regime was fully implemented in classrooms across the country.
Exams in Scotland have been controversial this year, with a system of teacher assessments used to determine grades for pupils after the pandemic led to cancellation of sit-down tests.
A disputed algorithm used to ”moderate” the estimates resulted in thousands of pupils’ estimates being downgraded, before a U-turn by ministers saw them reinstated.
But today' s Thursday report warns the experience of Covid should point the way ahead for exams in Scotland in future." high school examinations are essentially an out-of-date 19 th-and 20 th-century technology
operating in a 21 st-c en tury environment,” it states.
"Digital technology is transforming our capacities for selfassessment, peer assessment, shared assessment and continuous assessment."
Although “sit-down examinations” may still have a role, they can be “taken and retaken like driving tests” throughout the year, the report adds, rather than in a “one -time, highstress, win/lose moment”.
“There is a need for a greater role for internal assessment in determining qualifications that better match the knowledge and skills demanded by wider social and economic change,” the report adds.
“Building from the learning stimulated by the pandemic, a new balance between internal and external forms of assessment is needed.”
The schools curriculum should also be “re-evaluated”, the experts say .
“In the new era ahead of us, Scotland should consider introducing an agreed cycle of curriculum reform that creates necessary flexibility, balances national imperative s with local needs and circumstances, and encourages the kind of broad engagement in thinking that characterised the original national debate that led to CFE,” they add.
This should include greater use of digital technologies and platforms, which could pave the way to more blended learning even after the pandemic.
ICE A member Professor Chris Chapman, chair of educational policy and practice at Glasgow University, said: “Despite the challenges that we have faced during the global pandemic, it has been a pleasure to work with ICEA colleagues to offer challenge and support to the Scottish education system so that all children and young people of Scotland can achieve their full potential.”
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the report recognised the “effort and resources” going in to narrow attainment gaps.
“It reinforces the issue of equity as the defining agenda of our time, says we have an excellent standing inter nationally and that Scottish education can be a ‘global standard bearer in a post-pandemic world,” he said.
“That is no easy task and the report provides a series of detailed recommendations to help us not just get back to normal, but to use the pandemic as an opportunity to develop a more resilient education system for the future.”
The report came after it was announced that National 5 exams would be cancelled in Scotland in 2021 and replaced with teacher assessments and coursework.
Mr Swinney said that going ahead with all exams during the continuing Covid pandemic was “too big a risk”.
Higher and Advanced Higher exams will go ahead as usual but will start on May 13, two weeks later than planned.
Exams were cancelled for the first time ever in 2020.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority initially drew up results using a system which took teacher estimates for each pupil, then moderated them based on results from previous years. This sparked an outcry after 125,000 results were down graded, with claims the moderation system unfairly penalised children at schools which had historically not performed as well.