SQA urged to scrap ‘stressful’ grade tests
Demands are increasing for assessments faced by senior school pupils instead of formal exams to be cancelled.
Amid rising anxiety among parents and pupils, the Scottish Qualifications Authority faces pressure to drop its “alternative assessment”, which demands evidence of pupils’ attainment under “exam-like” conditions.
Demands are increasing for the assessments faced by senior school pupils in lieu of formal exams to be cancelled.
Scotland’s exams authority should drop its requirement for “de-facto school exams” after the Easter holidays, it has been demanded, amid rising anxiety among parents and pupils who have had a year’s learning disrupted by Covid lockdowns.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) cancelled formal National 5 and Higher exams in December, but its “alternative assessment model” has been described as “exams by another name”.
Despite a pledge that pupils would be graded based on teacher judgement and continuous assessment, the SQA now expects schools to produce evidence of pupils’ attainment under exam-like conditions.
Thousands of pupils will return to school after Easter to face an intense month of tests before the initial SQA deadline at the end of May, sparking petitions urging the SQA to change its approach.
The row comes months after pupils took to the streets to protest at the process the SQA employed last year to award qualifications after the exams were cancelled.
The algorithm used was found to be biased against pupils from schools in Scotland's most deprived areas, marking them down. Education secretary John Swinney had to reverse the decision to downgrade 124,000 exam results for 76,000 pupils.
Scottish Greens education
spokesperson Ross Greer said: “The SQA needs to drop the ludicrous requirement that the evidence submitted to them across a range of subjects must have been produced under exam-like conditions.
"This diktat is creating a pressure-cooker environment for both pupils and teachers, who are only just returning to class, but who now face a non-stop timetable of de-facto exams in the weeks after their Easter break.
“Scotland’s exams authority isn’t fit for purpose. Teachers have known this for years and last year’s entirely avoidable grading shambles demonstrated that to the rest of the country."
The final deadline for submission of pupils evidence for the SQA is June 25, but the exams authority will begin quality assurance checks and requests for evidence from the end of May.
As a result many schools
and councils have replicated a typical exam timetable throughout May for their senior pupils despite months of remote learning.
Scottish Conservative education spokesman Jamie Greene said: “John Swinney is once again letting down our pupils and teachers. He’s running the risk of having an unfair awards process for the second year in a row because he’s not put effective replacements in place for exams. “Teachers must be afforded the flexibility to do what they think is best to award grades. Pupils have suffered disruption over the last year and many simply aren’t ready for these assessments, but are bearing the brunt of a lack of leadership from John Swinney.
The SQA said it had "made it clear that there is no requirement to replicate a full formal exam or prelim diet".