Education, Children and Young People Committee
Alternative Certification Model response to letter December 2021
Response from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills,13 January 2022
Dear Convener
Thank you for your letter dated 22 December 2021. Apologies that I was unable to reply by 5 January as requested.
As you indicate, the approach to 2022 exams has been co-ordinated by SQA through the National Qualifications 22 Group and designed to flex in response to further disruption to learning caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
I confirmed on 18 August 2021 that exams would take place in 2022 if it is safe to do so. On the same day, SQA confirmed the approach to the 2022 exam diet and the contingency arrangements built into that model should there be further disruption; this approach has not changed in light of the spread of the omicron variant. I am confident that those contingency arrangements are still sound despite the emergence of the omicron variant.
SQA announced modifications to the assessment requirements for each National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher course on 23 June 2021. The modifications help reduce the volume of assessment and ease teacher, lecturer and learner workload, while maintaining the credibility of these qualifications. For most National 5 to Advanced Higher courses, these are the same modifications that were put in place for 2020-21.
If there is significant further disruption to learning and teaching this session, appropriate additional support measures for learners will be put in place to ensure that exams can still go ahead. For some courses this could include, for example, advance notice of some topics which will feature in exams. SQA are actively monitoring the situation in relation to the omicron variant and the resulting disruption to learning.
If changes to public health advice mean that large gatherings of people are no longer permitted in April to June, and exams are cancelled, SQA will ask teachers and lecturers to use their professional judgement of assessment evidence to determine learners' grades.
Schools, colleges and training providers would not be required to carry out any additional assessments, as they did in 2020-21. Instead, teachers and lecturers have been asked to determine learners’ grades, based on the work that learners have already completed throughout the year i.e. based on normal planned in-year assessment.
To prepare for the possibility of this scenario, teachers and lecturers have been gathering examples of learners’ work and keeping a record of any assessments that have and continue to take place throughout the session, for example prelims, practical performances or class tests that provide an appropriate degree of challenge, integration and application of the key knowledge and skills of each National Course.
SQA is also planning to put in place similar support services as those that were in place when exams were last held, for example where exceptional circumstances mean learners cannot sit exams or where they do not perform to the standard expected. SQA will provide more detail on exceptional circumstances and appeals this month.
I hope that is helpful.
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Linked Correspondence: Here is a link to the letter that the Committee sent to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on the 22/12/2021