Hansard

I thank the Liberal Democrats for bringing the issue to the chamber for debate. I am glad, in particular, to have the opportunity to expand on the calls that I made last week for the SQA management board to be replaced.

Nothing that we are raising this afternoon is new to the Government or to Education Scotland or the SQA. We need only look back at the Education and Skills Committee’s damning 2017 reports to see how extensively the problems that we are debating have been detailed before. In the course of its 2017 inquiries, the committee found unclear guidance, poor-quality exam papers, the imposition of onerous workloads on teachers and an ivory tower culture at both agencies.

Trust between the teaching profession and the SQA had broken down long before last year’s grading debacle. The exams authority is not seen as a partner or a support; it is seen by teachers as an antagonist. There is a problem with the management culture at the SQA. We are talking about a management that, pre-pandemic, appeared far too often to be preoccupied by its international business work, rather than focusing on addressing the serious concerns that had been raised by Parliament and by the teaching profession. Although some progress was made in reining in the deeply questionable regular business class travel and luxury hotel stays of senior staff, I do not consider the issues that were revealed by whistleblowers to be fully resolved, and I expect the authority to detail a new approach long before such international travel once again becomes a possibility.

Back at home, the SQA’s failures have been laid bare by the pandemic. Last year’s grading system was a scandal. Over 75,000 pupils saw their grades downgraded for no other reason than their postcode. I am proud of the role that the Scottish Greens played in having those grades restored to the levels that pupils actually deserved. The scandal of the grading shambles was not just the results, though; it was also the utter unwillingness of the SQA and the Scottish Government to listen to concerns or demonstrate even the most basic standards of transparency. Many of us warned for months of exactly what was to transpire. This Parliament twice demanded to see the algorithm, but we were rebuffed. The disaster was completely avoidable.

However, it was not just last year that there were problems. Despite a period of school closures being one of the most predictable outcomes for this year, I found in January that the SQA had not scenario planned for it. That lack of preparation nearly a year into the pandemic is scandalous.

Public confidence in the SQA is all but non-existent, and that is why I have asked for the resignations of the current board of management. In their place, I have proposed a board structure that would see the SQA overseen by those who are qualified in education and those who are directly impacted by its delivery. That means that the majority of members should be teachers or lecturers who are registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Seats should be reserved for teaching unions, a headteacher, a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament and a parent or carer.

I say this without any personal animosity towards current SQA board members, one of whom I would call a friend, but it is a damning indictment of education governance in Scotland that there are more management consultants than GTCS-registered educators on the board of our national qualifications agency. By reforming the board into one that properly represents Scottish education, we can start to rebuild trust between the SQA and those whom it is meant to serve. That can only be the start of the process, though.

Willie Rennie mentioned—fairly—how the Greens voted following a Liberal Democrat debate in 2017. I am prepared to hold my hands up and say that I called that one wrongly. Given that it came so soon after the Education and Skills Committee’s damning reports, I wanted to give both agencies and the Scottish Government an opportunity to respond and to demonstrate their willingness to change. However, my trust was misplaced and they have not done so.

Having spent the four years since then relentlessly investigating, questioning and debating the performance of both agencies, I am content in the closing weeks of this session of Parliament with the role that I and my party have played in pushing for change. Today, however, the Greens will support the motion and both Opposition amendments. For Education Scotland and the SQA, time is up. Scotland’s pupils and teachers and the public at large deserve so much better than what those agencies have delivered. This afternoon, Parliament will deliver our verdict, and it is incumbent on the Government to respect that and to act.