Meeting of the Parliament 25 June 2025
Scotland’s young people are our greatest asset, and it is incumbent on us all to legislate to ensure that the education system delivers the greatest opportunities for each and every one of them. Countless reviews, academics, experts, teachers, pupils and parents have been crying out for reform of the system, not least because, in 2020, the then Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, John Swinney, oversaw the SQA’s downgrading of the poorest students. That was pivotal in aligning the entire sector and country on the need for education reform. However, on a key aspect of that reform, which is to abolish the SQA, rather than voting for reform, the Parliament is being asked to vote for a review. A credible qualifications system cannot be run by a body that sets exams and accredits and regulates itself. That is a fundamental conflict of interest, yet that conflict of interest remains at the heart of the bill.
Scottish Labour offered solutions. We proposed separating accreditation from delivery so that the body that awards qualifications would not judge its own standards. We offered three routes—a single curriculum and regulation body, an independent chief regulator that would be answerable to the Parliament, or a stripped-back inspectorate model that would be free of conflict. All those proposals were rejected.