MORE EXAMS CHAOS...IN 2022

Uncertainty for pupils as minister says nothing has been decided

PUPILS could face more disruption next year after the Education Secretary admitted ‘no decision’ had been taken on the 2022 exam diet.

Shirley-Anne Somerville fuelled fears of a third year of chaos by warning that ‘contingencies’ would need to be put in place.

Exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of social distancing requirements and the impact of school closures on education.

This year, formal exams were replaced by controversial assessments amid widespread pupil cheating and little or no preparation time.

Scottish Tory education spokesman Oliver Mundell said another year of disruption would be ‘intolerable for parents, pupils and teachers’. He said: ‘The last two years of exams were always going to be difficult in the middle of a pandemic but the SNP’s poor planning turned them into a shambles.’

Mrs Somerville, who has been in her job for almost a month, said no decision had been

‘Told to unilaterally adjust estimates’

taken about next year. She told the TES Scotland educational journal that the National Qualifications 2021 (NQ21) Group – which designed the model that replaced the exams this year – was also looking ahead to 2022, and that it would be important to build ‘a system that has contingencies in place’.

Mrs Somerville said: ‘I appreciate people would like a decision to happen soon but I hope they would also expect me to make sure that we’re listening to everybody on the NQ21 Group, including teachers’ representatives, to see what they want to do.’

Teaching unions favour making more use of teachers’ judgment in future to assess pupil performance.

The minister said she was open to exam reform, with a review of qualifications due in the autumn.

There has been concern that teachers would come under pressure to revise grades, taking into account school attainment levels in the past.

However, Mrs Somerville said Education Scotland had investigated and found no evidence of this.

Last Friday, at the EIS teaching union’s annual general meeting, general secretary Larry Flanagan said he had received examples ‘where departments have been told to unilaterally adjust their estimates, often based on comparisons with previous years’ performance’.

Mrs Somerville insisted that such cases could be raised, in confidence, with Education Scotland, and ‘we would take that very seriously’.

She added: ‘Schools are perfectly entitled, through the quality assurance process, to ensure that staff are aware of previous attainment but if a staff member still judges that a pupil’s demonstrated attainment deserves a certain grade, then that is what should be happening.’

Last year, thousands saw their exam grades marked down because of an algorithm used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exams body, which disproportionately affected schools in poorer areas. This was later scrapped.

The minister also said the reform of the SQA and Education Scotland promised earlier this month would be fundamental and not just an exercise in rebranding.

A major Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development review of the Curriculum for Excellence is due on Monday and is expected to be highly critical of the SNP’s reforms.

Mrs Somerville will make a statement to parliament responding to it on Tuesday.

An SQA spokesman said: ‘The decision to run an exam diet is a matter for Scottish ministers.’