Plans for SQA replacement to be ready in six months – Somerville
The Scottish Qualifications Authority was accused of “screwing over” young people as the new education secretary announced plans for the organisation’s dismantling and promised the approach to next year’s exams will be known by the end of the school summer holidays.
Shirley-anne Somerville told MSPS yesterday that in light of a damning international report into Scotland’s education system, within six months there would be a “detailed plan” to replace the SQA and tackle the recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
She said she wanted to “move decisively to avoid unnecessary uncertainty” and revealed that Ken Muir, the former chief executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland, would lead on the response to the report and begin his work in August.
She said schools will know how next year's exams will be run by the start of the next term, while this year’s grades would not be impacted by any structural changes.
"I want to be in a position to confirm our central planning assumption for awarding qualifications in 2022 for the start of the school term in August, to give as much certainty for learners, teachers and the system as possible. This will take account of the latest state of the pandemic,” she said.
“Last week the First Minister committed to reviewing our approach to self-isolation
for young people identified as contacts, and any changes here could have a significant bearing on the extent of disruption for individual learners in the next school year, and in turn our decision on whether to hold an exam diet or use an alternative model of certification.
“Iknowthatmanystakeholders support us taking the next few weeks to think through these issues and take account of the latest public health
advice, before we confirm our central planning assumption at the start of the new school term.”
Ms Somerville also said she would establish “a Children and Young People’s Education Council to sit alongside the Scottish Education Council”, which would “ensure that the voices of those who are most affected by any changes in education are always heard loudly and clearly in strategic discussions”.
Ms Somerville made her statement to MSPS a day after she had announced the SQA would be scrapped following an OECD report into the Scottish curriculum that raised concerns about the ability of schools to deliver on its aspirations and the demand for highstakes exams.
However, Scottish Conservative education spokesman Oliver Mundell raised concerns that exams would be scrapped altogether in the wake of the
grades fiasco of last year and the current anger over the assessments being set for senior pupils. “The exams system has been a disaster in recent years,” he said.
“Young people know the SQA have screwed them over and it’s right that the SQA pay the price for their incompetence – but they shouldn’t be used as a scapegoat for 14 years of SNP failure.”