Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Official Report 630KB pdf

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Urgent Question

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National Qualifications 2021 (Appeals Process)

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the publication of the appeals process for 2021 national qualifications, in light of the Scottish Qualifications Authority missing publication deadlines.

I understand and appreciate that this can be a naturally anxious and stressful time for our young people who are undertaking national qualifications, their parents and their teachers, and, of course, I recognise the additional challenges that Covid has presented in this academic year. However, I offer reassurance that, across Scottish education, people are working hard on behalf of our learners to ensure that they achieve the fair and credible grades that they deserve. The key message to learners is that their grade will be determined by their teacher or lecturer, informed by assessment tasks that they have undertaken in their school or college, and not based on an algorithm or statistical model.

This year, unlike in an examination diet, schools and colleges are in direct control of the assessment process, and teachers have a significant degree of autonomy and flexibility to exercise their judgment to create and conduct assessments in ways that suit local circumstances and take account of the specific needs of learners. They will look across a range of assessments, consider national standards and reach a judgment about the grade that the learner has attained.

At present, the focus of schools and colleges is on ensuring that all our learners get the right and fair result first time. Nonetheless, I appreciate that every approach must allow for appeals, and we must ensure that we get that right and deliver a fair and credible process for that, too. We are working hard with the Scottish Qualifications Authority to do exactly that and, subject to parliamentary business, I intend to make a statement on that to Parliament next week.

I welcome the new cabinet secretary to her role.

Last week, the now former education secretary promised to pupils, parents and Parliament that that process was on the way. I welcome the fact that we are going to hear about it next week.

The SQA has twice promised the publication of the process, and it has missed both deadlines. Does the cabinet secretary recognise that it is now less than four weeks to the deadline for submissions from schools to the SQA? If evidence is to be collected for appeals, when will pupils, parents and teachers be able to do that in the absence of a published process?

I do not think that the Scottish Government is in any doubt that a public appeals process is a necessity. Can it be ensured that the process is communicated to teachers immediately, or as soon as possible, and that they are assisted in producing and collecting the evidence to make the system work?

I welcome Michael Marra to the Parliament and to his role as education spokesperson for Labour. I look forward to working with him constructively, I hope, as the First Minister has set out. I believe that we have our first meeting next week on that basis.

Michael Marra is absolutely right to point out to members that we need to ensure that people have faith in the process and that they have an understanding and appreciation of the way in which the decisions have been made and the conclusions that the SQA has reached.

In my original answer, I pointed out the importance of a credible and fair assessment and appeals process, and that is exactly what we intend to provide. That will, of course, be communicated very thoroughly not just to teachers but to young people. We are giving active consideration to how we can support young people through the process, to ensure that they have the maximum opportunity to take advantage of the appeals process and that they are encouraged and supported to do so.

As we take those constructive discussions forward, we in Labour would ask the cabinet secretary to reflect on the conduct of the SQA during the past year. The latest delays show, frankly, a level of contempt for parents, pupils and teachers across Scotland who are having to deal with the situation. I am very glad that there is a change in tone about this issue from the new cabinet secretary. She is not digging in with statements like those that we have heard recently to the effect that these assessments are not exams. People are sitting exams across the country, and they have a right to have an appeals process put in place.

As part of the discussions next week, I will raise with the cabinet secretary the status of the SQA and whether she thinks that its continued role is tenable, given its repeated mistakes—again and again—over the past year. Some reflections on that would be appreciated.

I am, of course, open to any discussions that Michael Marra, and indeed any other member in the chamber, wants to have on the SQA or any other part of this process.

This has undoubtedly been a difficult year for young people and for the teachers who have supported them through it. I think that the SQA has worked very hard to ensure that what is in place is fit for purpose and that it has done so in a fair and equitable way. Those are the principles that I have been speaking to the SQA about, and the SQA absolutely shares them and is determined to have them right at the heart of the system.

Will we have lessons to learn at the end of this process? Undoubtedly, we will. I think that we have made clear, during the entirety of our dealing with the pandemic, that we have to reflect on what went well and what we could have done better. That goes for every single part of government. However, everyone—and I include the SQA in this—has worked very hard right across the education sector and with all stakeholders to deliver a system for assessments this year that will be robust and which young people, employers, universities and colleges can have faith in. I hope that we can unite across the chamber, despite the differences that we may have had during the process, to ensure that young people know that we all have faith in the system and in the results that they will get, which will then allow them to go on to the positive destinations that I hope they will go to.

I welcome the Presiding Officer and the cabinet secretary to their new roles.

It was clear by the end of the last session of Parliament that the SQA had lost the confidence of this institution and of the public as a whole, and I will raise those issues with the cabinet secretary next week. However, what is of more immediate concern is that a large volume of appeals this year now seems inevitable. What has been put in place to ensure that the SQA has the capacity to process those appeals in a timely manner? What discussions have taken place with colleges and universities about the impact that a high volume of appeals and potential delays might have on their admissions processes?

It will be a pleasure to work with Ross Greer once again and to relive our Yes Scotland days during the referendum campaign, but we might have more disagreements than we did then. I hope not because, as I said to Michael Marra, I hope that we will all work constructively on this issue.

Ross Greer is right to point out that we need to ensure that people have faith in the system to deal with whatever might come up. However, we are initially determined to ensure that young people get the right grade the first time, so that the appeals process is not the route that people have to go down. The absolute focus for me, the SQA and others is to deliver an assessment process that is supported and gives children and young people the right grades the first time.

I have discussed the capacity of the system with the SQA, as Mr Greer would thoroughly expect me to do. We can go into further details on that during my statement to Parliament next week, if Parliament allows.

Presiding Officer, I welcome you and the cabinet secretary in your new roles.

Given that there is still a question on issues such as appeals six months after exams were cancelled, halfway through assessments and four weeks from the end of term, will the new cabinet secretary respect the vote that was won by the Scottish Liberal Democrats in February to reform the SQA during recovery?

After weeks of exams, pupils need fast access to mental health support. Can the cabinet secretary guarantee that?

As I said in one of my earlier answers, the SQA and I are looking carefully at what we need to do to ensure that the information that is going out to young people is informative and succinct but detailed where necessary. Part of that information will be about the support that we can give to young people who are going through the process, including in the practical sense of how to go about appealing, and the general support that any young person might require given the difficulties and challenges that many of them have faced this year. I reassure Beatrice Wishart that I am giving the issue active consideration.