Hansard

Like all parties in the chamber, the Scottish Labour Party continues to support curriculum for excellence. We want it to work, and that is why Scottish Labour have brought the debate to the chamber today, so that members can raise concerns and reflect on the evidence that was given to the Education and Culture Committee yesterday, and ask the Scottish Government to spell out what it intends to do to allay the concerns of teachers, parents, and pupils.

We have a responsibility and a duty to listen to the concerns about preparations for new national 4 and 5 exams in May and the proposed implementation of new national 6 higher courses in June. I say at the outset that Scottish Labour welcomes the announcement about extra resources that was made on Friday ahead of yesterday’s Education and Culture Committee meeting. I hope that the announcement will settle some of the nerves of teachers and parents. However, we have to recognise that the resources have come very late in the day. Such belated actions are welcome, but the minister should have made the resources available long before now.

The Scottish Government has been warned by teachers, parents, pupils, and local authorities for more than two years. Indeed, the Labour Party led a debate in March 2012 to raise those concerns. What we have seen since is months of complacency and the Scottish Government grossly underestimating and ignoring teacher workload issues and concerns. As Larry Flanagan, the Educational Institute for Scotland general secretary said yesterday, the resources are very welcome,

“but it will not have a major impact on national 4 and national 5, because we are only six school weeks away from the deadline for those qualifications.”—[Official Report, Education and Culture Committee, 25 February 2014; c 3620.]

We have to take very seriously what our teachers have said and the concerns that they continue to raise. The EIS also told the Education and Culture Committee:

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have not encountered as widespread anger and disappointment and frustration with the exams authority as we are currently witnessing. Our members feel that SQA communication has not been effective, support has not been sustained or sufficient, and that too much bureaucracy has crept into the process.”

The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association has listed 31 complaints in six different areas. It complains about the impenetrability of the Scottish Qualifications Authority website; the lack of time to prepare for new highers; the materials from the SQA that contain mistakes, grammatical errors and poor-quality graphics; the extreme shortage of clear exemplars; the lack of detail and direction in marking schemes; the inconsistency of standards by different verifiers; and the workload issue, with many teachers working in excess of 50—some are working 60—hours per week.

The SSTA also raises concerns about Education Scotland, which it accuses of seriously failing to deliver real support, and it has concerns about there being virtually no course texts available. Although Alan McKenzie, the general secretary of the SSTA, also welcomed the Government’s announcement last week, he acknowledged that it is not the complete answer that the SSTA members have identified. The current situation is completely unacceptable and it needs further urgent action from the Government to address the outstanding issues and concerns that teachers have. We have seen a couple of press releases from the Government and the SQA during the past week, and they are welcome, but we should have a full report and full details of what the Government is going to do to address all those concerns.

What is the Government going to do about the lack of practice papers? What is it going to do to ensure that teachers have sufficient higher textbooks, that we do not see industrial action taken by teachers, and that those who have additional support needs and those pupils who are studying for qualifications at colleges get the support that they need? What is it going to do to address all the other concerns that we heard at yesterday’s committee?

On the issue of practice papers, we heard yesterday that teachers urgently want three practice papers in each subject, but they are to receive only one. The minister has said that that is adequate, but teachers do not think that it is adequate, and I believe that parents and pupils will agree. It is not good enough for the minister to say that he is listening; he needs to act, and with only six teaching weeks left before the new exams, he needs to act urgently.

If the Scottish Government disagrees with Scotland’s teachers and feels that nothing more is required, I hope that the minister, who is ultimately responsible, will tell the chamber that all the necessary support and resources are in place to allow teachers to deliver these important changes. In the interests of transparency and to reassure parents, the Scottish Government must also compile and publish, as soon as possible, a report on how many pupils are studying the new highers and the existing highers and in what subjects. We need to hear reassurances from the minister, because teachers clearly have many concerns about workload and assessment issues.

An EIS survey from December showed that, in Renfrewshire, 92 per cent of teachers spend more time on curriculum development than is allocated in their working time agreement, and they do not feel confident in delivering the new higher exam. I will read some of the comments from the teachers who responded.

“Never before have I disliked coming to work, I am by nature an organised person and I am finding the stress of not knowing unbearable. Late information from the SQA has been a major factor.”

“The SQA have made a real mess of the implementation of the N5 and I have no confidence that they will be any better in the new higher.”

“The lack of planning, organisation and support given to teachers is a disgrace.”

“We are starting 2014 with SQA still making changes to units which people are presenting from in May—a disgrace.”

“The SQA implementation of the Senior Phase has been a disaster.”