Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 09 December 2020
In his remarks, George Adam asked us to take a deep breath. I would ask SNP members to consider that it is they who need to take a deep breath. There is nothing in the motion or the amendment proposed by the Labour Party that they should disagree with. Indeed, if we are all agreed that we want to see our education systems succeed, they should not be points of disagreement; they should be points of consensus about how we take our education system forward.
As many members have pointed out, we are in unprecedented times. As we face Covid-19, it presents challenges in terms of immediate infection control, and how we deal with those things given limited information and the fact that this is an emerging virus without the science to back us up. We have grappled with the long-term, social and economic consequences. Education policy, in microcosm, has each of those three elements.
It is not easy and it is understandable that mistakes would be made, because of the unprecedented circumstances. However, as many members have pointed out, we are nine months on and we have seen a great number of issues arise, as Iain Gray set out in his opening remarks.
We are asking the Scottish Government to learn from those mistakes. When the exams were cancelled back in May, it should have been clear and obvious that there was a risk that the exams would have to be cancelled in 2021, too. From that moment, it was incumbent on the Government to draw up contingency plans with regard to what it would do if those exams had to be cancelled, but that is not the announcement that we have just had. The announcement should have been that we were reverting to a plan B that was well understood and had been announced at the start of term, as opposed to a plan that has been half announced as schools get ready to rise for Christmas.
That brings us to the motion in front of us. George Adam rather confusingly seemed to point out that the Government is apparently in agreement with each of the points raised in the motion, but it is opposing them because of who is raising them. The Government will vote against more teachers, despite claiming that it is putting more teachers in place and acknowledging the increased workload that we are placing on our teachers. The Government claims that it is providing clarity and yet it will vote against calls for clarity.
I agree with many SNP members that the Conservatives have been on something of an ironic journey on the issue of free school meals, but let me say this: I do not care what journey someone has been on if they arrive at the right conclusion and agree on an important issue such as free school meals, which had its case made well by Elaine Smith. I congratulate them on arriving at the right conclusion; I do not dismiss their calls because I do not agree with where they started from.
The Labour amendment calls for clarity on methodology, and it is claimed that we have had an announcement on that. We have a timetable and a framework, but we do not have clarity about how quality control of the assessment will take place. We also do not know how appeals will take place. Anyone clicking through the documentation on the SQA website will be taken to a document that states that appeals will be made through centres, not by individuals.
There are two clear lessons to learn from the exams debacle earlier this year. First, when candidates’ grades are altered, they need to know the basis of that alteration—why it has happened and what the justification is. The framework that has been set out does not provide that clarity and it will not be sufficient until it does so. Secondly, when candidates feel that their grade is unfair, they, not their school, need to decide whether to appeal.
These are unprecedented times, but we must learn from the mistakes, not repeat them, because the future of our young people rests on the decisions that we make.
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