Hansard

As I reaffirmed in Parliament on 19 January, it is our firm intention that exams will take place this year. I restated the significant modifications to courses and assessments that the Scottish Qualifications Authority has already made to take account of the expected disruption to learning, and I set out the contingencies to support learners in the event of further disruption, as has been the position since we made the initial announcement in August last year. The SQA has been working closely with partners, including through the national qualifications group, to take account of the disruption that learners continue to face. Indeed, everyone involved in education—myself included—acknowledges that this year has been another exceptionally difficult one.

Two weeks ago, I advised that the SQA had indicated that a decision on the scenario 2 contingency was likely to be made soon, based on information such as national teacher and pupil absence levels. Although the number of full and partial school closures has been small, it is clear that many secondary schools have experienced, particularly in the first half of January, extreme disruption in the wave of the omicron variant in relation to student and teacher absences. We continue to refine our school safety guidance accordingly, based on evidence on risks and benefits, including in the changes published today, and we are keeping the data under constant review as we move forward.

Learners in the college sector have had to revert to a universally remote learning model rather than a hybrid model since late December.

Given the level of disruption and its impact on learning and teaching, the SQA board has now taken the decision to invoke the scenario 2 contingency measure, and the SQA will provide revision support to aid learners in their preparations for exams. The SQA will provide revision support for every course that has an exam. The type of support for each course will depend on the course and the modifications to assessment that the SQA made at the start of the academic session. Information is now available on the SQA website that sets out the existing modifications and the type of revision support that will be provided for each course by subject and level.

The SQA will provide the full detail of that revision support in early March. That timing enables teachers to complete delivery of the full modified course requirements before learners turn their attention more fully towards revision in the run-up to the exams. The support is aimed at helping to reduce the stress for learners in preparing for their exams and allowing them to maximise their performance.

Today, the SQA has also announced its approach to exceptional circumstances, grading and appeals this year. Those measures have been developed in close consultation with members of the national qualifications 2022 group.

The exam exceptional circumstances approach is available to learners as exams are taking place. It provides a back-up for learners who are unable to attend their exam or exams due to illness or bereavement, or if there is disruption during the exam. That will include Covid-19-related absences. The service is based on the SQA’s established annual process. If a candidate is eligible for exceptional circumstances, their centre will provide appropriate assessment evidence that has been gathered during the year, and the SQA will review that against the national standard and award the appropriate grade.

Once the exams have been completed and marked, the SQA will look at the outcomes through its standard processes to determine the 2022 grade boundaries that are needed to achieve an A, B or C grade for the specific subject and level. Senior SQA appointees, who are practising teachers or lecturers, will take an expert decision that is based on a range of evidence. That includes the reflections of markers and the senior exam team as they mark and review a wide range of candidate exam scripts; estimates that are provided by centres; and information such as the number of candidates entered and the number of centres presenting candidates for the course.

The key focus will be on reviewing how course assessments worked this session, as measured against the national standard. In recognition of the disruption that learners have faced over the past two years and of the different assessment approaches that have applied, the approach to grading this year’s exams will look to factor in the impact of the pandemic on learners.

The grade boundary decisions will be applied at a national level. Individual local authority or school data will not be looked at, and no algorithms will be used in the process. The expectation is that the overall outcomes in 2022 will represent an intermediary position between 2021 and pre-pandemic years.

Once the results have been published, learners will have free direct access to appeal their result. The appeals service in 2022 acknowledges the particular challenges for learners this year. For that reason, as well as conducting a clerical check on exam scripts for each appeal, SQA appointees will review alternative assessment evidence that learners have completed through the year. That will be the same evidence as that used for an exam exceptional circumstances request.

If, following that review of evidence, the SQA assesses that a higher grade has been achieved, that will be awarded. If the review of evidence results in a lower grade than that achieved in the exam, the exam grade will stand. Delivery of that approach, which has our young people’s interests at its heart, will require working together by the whole system. The SQA has agreed with the national qualifications group what the SQA, centres and learners need to do if learners have not performed in their exam to the standard that was expected. Equality and children’s rights impact assessments have been carried out and will be published in the coming weeks, alongside the full detail and guidance on the measures.

All the measures underpin the 2022 exam diet and balance the integrity and credibility of qualifications against the on-going impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on learners. They will also give clarity and reassurance to learners who have conditional and unconditional offers for colleges and universities.

In addition to those measures by the SQA, I am clear that more is needed to support our young people in their learning. I have set out the measures that the SQA is taking, but there is of course an important role for local support to learners. Schools are best placed to support individual learners to catch up on their learning and have the best chance to demonstrate their potential. Our teachers have continued to work tirelessly throughout these challenging times to deliver for their learners, and I offer my heartfelt thanks to teachers and all the staff in our schools.

To complement and enhance school-based support, Education Scotland continues to support young people who are studying for qualifications through the national e-learning offer, which every learner in Scotland from the age of three to 18 can access. Through glow, which is our national schools intranet, senior phase learners are accessing e-Sgoil’s supported study webinars and resources. Last year, the e-Sgoil senior phase Easter study support programme was extremely popular, and it will be repeated this year to offer live webinars that will cover more than 60 courses at a range of levels, from national 4 to advanced higher.

To build on existing provision, learners can attend online evening revision classes in a range of courses throughout the term. Learners from all 32 local authorities have engaged with that study support, and measures are being taken to target and engage with groups of learners for that support. In addition, e-Sgoil will offer specialised targeted study support, via referral from a headteacher, for young people who are considered to have been most impacted by Covid.

Learners from all 32 local authorities have access to more than 1,850 West Partnership online school videos to support senior phase learning via glow or their own local platforms. More than 21,000 unique users have accessed those videos. To complement that, learners are also accessing developing the young workforce live webinars and resources with more than 40 courses to choose from; they have had more than 16,000 learner attendances to date.

Working as part of the regional teams at Education Scotland, attainment advisers will continue to provide bespoke support to each local authority and, in partnership with local authority officers, to individual schools and clusters of schools. The support that is provided includes help for practitioners to use data and evidence effectively to identify where young people require support and to identify the actions that will have most impact.

Each year, many schools provide Easter study support provision to help learners who are preparing for their exams. Findings from an informal audit by Education Scotland established that, although some local authorities have a well-established offer, others choose not to deliver Easter sessions. In October last year, I committed to boosting in-person Easter study support provision.

Scottish Government officials have been working with local government and others to agree distribution of £4 million of funding to increase support where appropriate, particularly for learners from the most deprived backgrounds. It is anticipated that that funding will allow schools and colleges, or local authorities through authority-wide initiatives, to offer targeted sessions for learners over the Easter break. Where an Easter study offer already exists, the funding could allow schools or colleges to broaden their existing offer for targeted learners or, through promotion, encourage those learners to attend existing sessions.

The package of measures and support is designed to ensure that our learners are fully supported in their learning and preparations for the exams this year, to help them achieve and demonstrate their full potential and to have that recognised in their grades on 9 August. I hope that colleagues across the Parliament will come together to welcome the measures and recognise that that work confirms our clear intention that exams will go ahead as planned.