A Week in Parliament

SQA/Awards 

Education in Scotland in terms of elected responsibilities lies with MSPs and local councillors. My office too has been contacted by the concerns arising from some of the downgrading of teacher’s predictions for pupil qualifications. Congratulations to those who got the results they needed and for those who didn’t, submit an appeal if you and your teacher think you have been unfairly downgraded.  

There is a well-known “attainment gap” issue whereby pupils from less affluent areas perform less well in general terms than those from more affluent areas. This is why more pupils from less affluent areas were downgraded. Is this fair? It doesn’t feel so, but otherwise there was going to be a 20% improvement in results from those schools. What would opposition politicians say with a 20% jump in one year? They would call it a fix. A pre 2021 election gimmick. Our education system and the assessment process should be challenged for the right reasons, not politics. It will be of no surprise that the same process has been undertaken in Wales (Labour Government) and England (Tory Government), with England’s downgrading at an astonishing 40%.  

The issues here appear to have been recognised by the education secretary John Swinney. He has rightly recognised that pupils’ grades should reflect what they have done. It would have been better if that announcement came quicker once the extent of the downgrading was made public. I also believe the SQA needs to be less secretive and more transparent.  

I have concerns for affected East Ayrshire pupils. A council briefing does not make good reading.  There are concerns that too many pupils got no awards in subjects the teachers predicted a “C” pass. Some schools have been much worse affected than others. There is a flip side that some pupils got higher awards than what was predicted so these things need considered in the round. Some politicians don’t realise they are now demanding these pupils get downgraded. 

Despite the downgrading appearing to affect the less well off the most, there was still a narrowing of the attainment gap. One of my reflections is that the issue with the historical attainment gap proves some schools are able to be more “exam focussed”. Many of those students are also helped better in the home and are encouraged to prepare properly for the exams. This is an issue if the focus switches too much to just getting results in exams. At some point this needs reviewed, and this should follow on from curriculum for excellence – reward pupils for all year hard work.   

If we manage to move away from an exam-based system to continuous assessment, then we also need to trust the teachers. Many of those teachers who currently feel their judgement has not been accepted by the SQA. So, thanks too, to teachers for their general efforts and additional work put in due to Covid-19. Any reviews into the SQA process grading and changes made have to achieve outcomes that stand up to scrutiny, transparency and gain the confidence of both teachers and pupils.