Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 December 2020
No one is under any illusion that running an education system in the middle of a global pandemic is easy. All across Europe, Governments have been forced to take unpopular and unprecedented decisions about schools, universities and early years. No one is seriously suggesting that those decisions have been taken with anything other than the best of intentions, even if those decisions sometimes divide opinion. That gives the Scottish Government some cover for the past nine months. Finding adequate excuses for the failings in education that have been amassed over the past 13 years will be trickier.
As has been well documented by colleagues across the chamber, the SNP’s domestic record on education has been shocking. Unfortunately, the chaos that has been caused by the Government’s indecision on higher and advanced higher exams has left pupils and teachers in a situation of uncertainty since the beginning of the parliamentary session, having to second-guess whether exams will take place in 2021.
Even with the severity of the challenges that have been posed by Covid-19, surely there has been enough time for any Government to decide and act on a proper plan. That should have all been done and prepared months ago, not announced yesterday, more than halfway through the academic school year. Whatever decision the SNP Government wanted to reach, it has waited far too long to make it.
So where are we now? John Swinney’s response yesterday was to issue guidance on how teachers should assess their pupils, recognising that that will create additional work for and pressure on our already overstretched teachers. By way of acknowledgement, the Government will give teachers and lecturers who are critical to assessing and marking exam courses a one-off payment. How much extra pressure and time will that work involve for teachers? [Interruption.] The member will have to forgive me. I have only four minutes.
What about the additional payment; how much will that be? Let us note that it will be taxable.
Highers are not just about the year leading up to the actual exam; they are the culmination of years of hard work for students and teachers alike. John Swinney said that he
“will not stake the future of our higher pupils ... on a lottery of whether their school was hit by Covid.”—[Official Report, 8 December 2020; c 49.]
I am sorry; it will be a complete lottery, and if the 2020 assessment process is anything to go by, it will be a complete shambles too. That is especially the case given that guidance is only now being issued to teachers on how to assess their pupils, rather than have every pupil in Scotland sit the same exam on the same day.
I have touched on the additional pressure that will be heaped on to teachers, but what about our pupils? They are now living under huge pressure at school, where they are constantly being assessed, as opposed to aiming for a higher exam next May. That is affecting pupils’ mental health and should be flagged as an area of major concern. Let us think about what will happen when this generation of young Scottish people goes to university or college and suddenly has to sit exams, when for the past two years, that opportunity has been taken away. Some children will be left ill equipped and at a disadvantage, because they will have no exam experience under their belts.
As we all know, the First Minister requested that the people of Scotland judge her on her record on education. Given the performance of the past 13 years, it is perhaps unsurprising to see that the SNP Government is now so averse to examinations.
I am pleased to support the motion in the name of Jamie Greene.
16:05