Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 23 Oct 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Official Report 213KB pdf

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Scottish Qualifications Authority

We now move back into public session. Mike Russell has intimated that he wants to raise points about the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Scottish Media Group.

I raise the point about the SQA first. There was a press report in the Daily Record yesterday about an extension to the appeals process, which the SQA appeared to announce to centres. There are two areas of concern. One is that the SQA is apparently claiming that the time scale that it set for the appeals process was too short and that it prioritised appeals by those students who were going to university. It therefore disadvantaged those who were not making university or college-based appeals. The SQA felt that it was necessary to extend the time scale, which is welcome, but we commented on the time scale for the whole diet and we need to consider that.

The second concern is that there is to be a fee of £30 per additional appeal from the centres. That strikes me as being well out of keeping with the previous regime. I wonder whether we should write to the SQA to ask about that and to ask Bill Morton to come back before the committee because we have not heard from representatives of the SQA since before the exam results came out. We are moving forward; it would be interesting to know what is taking place. It would perhaps have been courteous of the SQA to inform us of that change to a significant part of its procedures.

Do members have views on that?

I am not sure whether Bill Morton is still with the SQA. I think that he is about to move. However, I agree with Michael Russell. I am really concerned by the £30 fee. I am not happy that students will have to find that amount in order to lodge an appeal. It might make sense to ask the SQA to come back and speak to us—it has been a wee while since we heard from the organisation and we could catch up on some issues that we were concerned about.

I suggest that, in the short term, I write to the SQA and ask for an explanation, particularly on the issue of the fee. We will try to factor the SQA into a meeting perhaps towards the end of November or the beginning of December so that we can receive an update. Are members all agreed?

Members indicated agreement.