Committee
Education and Skills Committee 19 September 2018
19 Sep 2018 · S5 · Education and Skills Committee
Item of business
2018 Exam Diet (Curriculum and Attainment Trends)
Is it true that, in a more deprived area, a child who is very well supported by their family and is very able will not be able to compete to get into university because they will already have been denied the opportunity to do the number of subjects that they wanted to?
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Agenda item 4 is an evidence-taking session on the curriculum and attainment trends in the 2018 exam diet. I am very pleased to welcome to the meeting Dr Ala...
Professor Jim Scott (University of Dundee)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is something of a challenge to condense all that has happened in curriculum for excellence into about three minutes, b...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much, Professor Scott. I invite Dr Britton to make a contribution.
Dr Alan Britton (University of Glasgow)
I thank the committee for inviting me. I will try to offer my insights into the issues that are under consideration. My analysis mainly stems from a long-st...
Dr Marina Shapira (University of Stirling)
I want to talk about findings from our recently finished paper on the decline in the number of subject choices in S4. We have done other research on the narr...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much, Dr Shapira. Dr Brown, would you like to make an opening statement?
Dr Janet Brown (Scottish Qualifications Authority)
I have some very brief comments to explain the role of the Scottish Qualifications Authority. As the committee will know, we are required to develop, validat...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much, Dr Brown. I invite our deputy convener to open the questioning. Committee members should indicate to me whether they would like to come...
Johann Lamont
Lab
I thank all our witnesses for their remarks, which have been an important first step in our trying to understand what is happening. I do not think that, in t...
Professor Scott
Your perception of what is happening and what we have all tried to say is largely correct. There is a problem for the most able children. Neither Janet Brown...
Johann Lamont
Lab
This is a personal obsession, because standard grade was introduced when I was teaching and the joy of having a certificated rather than non-certificated cla...
Professor Scott
One wants to encourage achievement. If we look at the leaver data from 2009-10, the number of children leaving school with no qualification is slowly creepin...
Dr Shapira
Our study is on the level of schools and not on the level of pupils. What we see at the moment is a link between the level of school area deprivation, the nu...
Johann Lamont
Lab
Is it true that, in a more deprived area, a child who is very well supported by their family and is very able will not be able to compete to get into univers...
Dr Shapira
If their school uniformly offers five or six subjects, there is no way that the child would be—
Johann Lamont
Lab
Is there any research that looks at the cohort of young people who are able to compete to get to university or college? With a cap, it follows logically that...
Dr Shapira
In our study, we are looking at the impact of the curriculum for excellence on subject choices, attainment and the transition into higher education. Research...
The Convener
SNP
I want to move on. Members have been asked to address their questions to specific panel members. If other members of the panel would like to pick up any poin...
Mary Fee (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I will roll my questions into one to get through them as quickly as possible. I come at the issue from the simplistic point of view that our schools should m...
Professor Scott
The obvious answer to your last question is that it must. I am not sure that I would describe what is happening in S1 to S3 as chaos. I think that it is a m...
The Convener
SNP
We move on to a question from Liz Smith.
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
Thank you, convener, and congratulations on your new role. I have a question for Dr Brown. In the submissions from Professor Scott and Dr Britton, they both...
Dr Brown
Part of the problem, as Jim Scott highlighted, is that the curriculum was for three to 18, and we need to think about that. The extension of broad general ed...
Liz Smith
Con
Is that lack of connection more to do with what non-traditional, extra-vocational courses—which have been pretty successful, in many cases—are on offer? Is t...
Dr Brown
That is a very complicated question. Jim Scott pointed out that, if candidates go from taking eight subjects to six subjects, they should have more time. How...
Liz Smith
Con
Previously, the committee has discussed national 4. I think that you are in the middle of a review of national 4. When will that review be finished?
Dr Brown
The review is being done by the curriculum and assessment board, which is due to meet in a couple of weeks. We have a Scottish education council meeting tomo...
Liz Smith
Con
That recommendation will be made to the Scottish Government.
Dr Brown
Yes.
Professor Scott
I have a few associated points, if I can remember them all. I was part of the process with the 16 to 18 curriculum that the SQA carried through. As Janet Br...