Hansard

National qualifications are one of three key strands of work in implementing the curriculum for excellence. The other areas are curriculum guidance, which has now been published, and assessment policy, which will be published in the summer.

This package of measures will enable our education system to provide improved learning and teaching for our children and young people. After decades of piecemeal reform and separate initiatives, we now have comprehensive reform from age three to age 18. Our children and young people will now benefit from a more rounded education from the early years through to sixth year, with a greater emphasis on developing skills for learning, life and work; a more sustained focus on developing literacy and numeracy skills and an active, healthy lifestyle; and more motivating and challenging learning that promotes breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding to last a lifetime, not just for the next test.

Over the past few weeks, thousands of our young people and adult learners have been sitting exams for the current suite of national qualifications. I am sure that Parliament will join me in wishing all the candidates success.

We need to ensure that future qualifications reflect and support the curriculum for excellence. Our proposals for the next generation of national qualifications will retain the strengths of the current arrangements while addressing some long-standing issues. In particular, we will reduce overassessment, so that there is more time for quality learning and teaching; we will give more professional autonomy to teachers to raise standards of learning and teaching; and we will reduce the current complexity in the qualifications system to make it more streamlined and understandable for parents and employers and to ensure that qualifications relate directly to the world-leading Scottish credit and qualifications framework.

Following the public consultation, the curriculum for excellence management board has provided its advice on the best way forward for qualifications. The management board's membership includes representatives from local authorities, the main teaching unions, Scotland's Colleges, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Learning and Teaching Scotland and Skills Development Scotland. The management board brings together knowledge and experience from across Scotland's education system. Its members know what works well and what needs to be improved, and I am very grateful to them for their work.

I wish to announce my decisions on three main issues: first, the review of national qualifications at access, higher and advanced higher levels; secondly, the introduction of national 4 and national 5, the new qualifications that will replace the present standard grade and intermediate qualifications; and thirdly, the development of national literacy and national numeracy awards.

First, on the review of national qualifications, the consultation has shown that access, higher and advanced higher qualifications are key strengths of our existing system. They will be retained, and we will build upon them by updating them to reflect the values, purposes and principles of the curriculum for excellence.

Secondly, on the new qualifications to replace standard grade and intermediate qualifications at levels 4 and 5 on the Scottish credit and qualifications framework, national 4 and national 5 will be designed to support learning through the revised curriculum and increase the focus on skills development. They will be available in the suite of individual subject areas—for example, people will be able to gain national history 4 or national maths 5 qualifications.

The new qualifications will be unit-based to ensure consistency with other national qualifications. National 4 courses will be assessed by teaching staff, primarily through a course assessment, and will be quality assured by the SQA. The qualification will not be graded, and will therefore free up more time for learning and teaching.

National 5 courses will be a combination of course assessment assessed by teaching staff and quality assured by the SQA, and an exam or other external assessment by the SQA. The national 5 qualification will be graded to help learners to progress to higher qualifications, other areas of learning and employment.

National 4 and national 5 will be designed to be delivered flexibly. Study for the new qualifications will generally begin in secondary 4, with flexibility to take greater account of prior learning than has been the case in the past. Pupils should be able to take up to eight subjects in fourth year, as is currently the case. There will also be an opportunity for schools to provide for the most able pupils to bypass national 4 and national 5 and begin studying for some highers in S4.

National 4, national 5 and revised access, higher and advanced higher qualifications will be available from term 2013-14 onwards. That will ensure that the pupils who experience the new curriculum in secondary school from their first year onwards can progress smoothly on to a revised set of qualifications. Those pupils are currently preparing to leave primary 6.

The new national literacy and numeracy awards will be available to young people from third year onwards. It is expected that young people will be presented for the qualifications at some point before they leave school. That will give pupils the chance to achieve the qualifications when they are ready and it will give schools greater flexibility in their planning. The awards are intended to recognise the attributes that will be needed for later study or employment. The content of the qualifications will be based on the experiences and outcomes for literacy and numeracy in the curriculum for excellence.

It is clear that Scotland faces a pressing need to improve literacy and numeracy skills among the wider adult population. That is why we want to encourage uptake of the new qualifications by adult learners. The national literacy and numeracy awards will be based on a portfolio of work that is drawn from across the revised curriculum or other aspects of learning, life and work. That will benefit individuals and Scotland's economy in general.

Initially, the qualifications will involve external marking by the SQA. The intention is to reduce the amount of external marking that is required when national standards have been widely shared, understood and verified. The national literacy and numeracy awards will be achievable at SCQF levels 3, 4 and 5 and will profile an individual's skills rather than grade them. The recognition of the new qualifications in the SCQF will help to promote their value to employers and others.

We intend to make national literacy and numeracy awards available from 2012-13. That will ensure that the first pupils to experience learning and teaching through the revised curriculum—those who are currently coming to the end of primary 6—will have the opportunity to achieve the new qualifications from S3 onwards. The SQA will work with partners to agree the precise timing and details of implementation.

The literacy and numeracy qualifications are part of our series of actions to improve literacy and numeracy skills. For example, for the first time, we have given all teaching staff professional responsibility for promoting literacy and numeracy skills at every stage of education. The early years framework makes it clear that we are committed to tackling barriers to achievement through early intervention, and smaller class sizes in the formative years will help teaching staff to embed literacy and numeracy skills.

Later in the summer, we will publish details of the third strand of the curriculum for excellence, on assessment, which will be informed by the advice of the curriculum for excellence management board. We will publish a policy statement that sets out the key elements of our proposals to support assessment in the curriculum for excellence. It will specify national standards and state what learners are expected to achieve as they progress through the curriculum.

We will also publish an assessment framework that gives more detailed advice. It will include guidance on an external moderation process to support teachers in making their judgments, and it will ensure that breadth and depth of learning are assessed consistently against the national standards. There will also be a refocused Scottish survey of achievement to assess literacy and numeracy. The SQA and its partners will ensure that the new and revised qualifications have rigorous assessment and quality assurance systems that are supported by continuous professional development.

My announcement today sets out a clear direction for our qualifications system. Of course, the precise details of the new arrangements will follow. I am pleased that the curriculum for excellence management board and the SQA will continue to work together to focus on practical implementation and consider how best to meet learners' needs.

We are giving teachers more professional autonomy in order to raise standards of learning and teaching. At the same time, we are reducing the complexity of the qualifications system to make it more streamlined and understandable for parents and employers. The next generation of national qualifications will raise standards, improve learning for pupils and reflect curriculum reform. Most important, the qualifications will equip Scotland's young people and adult learners with the skills for learning, life and work, and the knowledge and understanding, that they will need to rise to the challenges of 21st century society.