Press release from SSTA on SQA. The last section….
Press Release – For Immediate Release
12 June 2023
SQA Putting Young People at Risk by Refusing to Listen to Secondary Teachers
The SQA is refusing to reconsider its decision to reintroduce the full requirements for National Qualifications course assessments in session 2023-24 – including reinstating coursework and exam assessment and the National 4 added value unit.
Seamus Searson, General Secretary said.
“The SSTA met with senior officials of the SQA last week and made a plea for the SQA to listen to secondary teachers delivering examinations in schools. We asked that the SQA Board of Management and the National Qualification 2023 Review Group reconsider their decision and delay the return to full exam requirements in 2024. An SSTA survey found that only 19% of practitioners wanted a return to national qualifications in full in 2024”.
“The SSTA challenged the SQA’s plan to revert to the national qualification pre-pandemic requirements in 2024 on two fundamental grounds. The teachers are not ready and, most importantly, pupils are not ready. Schools are still addressing education recovery; pupils moving into the senior phase are not in the place they need to be to cope with a full return to exams, especially at Higher and Advanced Higher levels (where only 15% of teachers wanted a return)”.
“To reintroduce pre-pandemic exam arrangements in 2024, when teachers say that only 12% of pupils are ready, is a stubborn move by a self-interested organisation that is oblivious to the realities in secondary schools and is potentially causing thousands of young people unnecessary pressure and stress. It is worth reminding the public that this is the same organisation that made such a mess of the ‘Alternative Certification Model’ in 2020”.
“The damage to pupils’ learning and the task for teachers in trying to bridge the gap cannot be underestimated and the SQA must think again. Members are concerned about the wellbeing of their pupils and the immeasurable workload demands on a profession that is already ‘on its knees’. The SQA needs to listen to the teachers who are in schools every day trying to support pupils and delivering the national qualifications. More than 2,000 SSTA members cannot all be wrong”.
“Our position can best be summed up by one member who said in the SSTA survey:
“I have not spoken to anyone who is in favour of this. Many of us completed the consultative surveys from the SQA and it appears we, the teachers’ voice, have been completely ignored. It is more likely that there will be a detrimental impact on pupil stress and teacher workload by bringing them back.”
Stuart Hunter, SSTA President, said.
“The SQA officials listened politely but were unprepared to ask the SQA Board to reconsider the decision. We were told that the decision had been made, it was supported by ‘all stakeholders’ and was in the ‘best interest of learners’. When we suggested the possibility of a phased return at National 4 and 5 level in 2024 this was rejected ‘out of hand’.
“It is ironic that the SQA acknowledged in its report on the 2022 exams that: The impact of the pandemic remains a very significant factor… the cumulative effect of lockdowns, learning loss, and the substantially increased levels of stress caused by the pandemic, including that involved in sitting formal external assessments”.
“The SQA’s own participation survey reported: that learners who are now sitting National Courses do not have the same foundation of skills and knowledge or exam competence that would have been anticipated before the pandemic, and that some learners are less resilient and less able to deal with stress. Nothing has changed since 2022. There is no additional time to complete essentially a two-year course in one year at Higher and Advanced Higher level, and no allowance for teachers delivering multi-course classes (e.g., Nat 4, Nat 5, Higher in one class). Yet the SQA persists with its stubborn attitude that it knows best”.
Seamus Searson concluded.
“The SSTA is not prepared to stand by and let the illogical dogma of the SQA, which unnecessarily puts young people at risk of harm and increases teacher workload, prevail.
“The action of the SQA is indefensible and it is time the SQA is replaced before it does more harm to the young people for whom it says it cares. The SSTA National Executive will be considering measures it can take to protect its members and the young people they teach”.
Yours sincerely
Seamus Searson General Secretary Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association