Greens welcome exams cancellation
Scottish Greens Education spokesperson Ross Greer MSP has welcomed an announcement from the Education Secretary that there will be no Higher and Advanced Higher exams in 2021.
The Scottish Greens have led calls for school exams to be cancelled in light of the pandemic, being the first to make this proposal in May, when it became clear that the 2020/21 school year would see huge disruption.
Ross Greer MSP said:
“The Scottish Greens have called for all 2021 exams to be cancelled since it became clear in May that the level of disruption would make a fair exam diet impossible, so today’s announcement is overdue but welcome.
“It provides the clarity that teachers, parents and, most importantly, pupils had demanded.
“What’s essential now is that the Education Secretary stops the SQA repeating its approach to National 5 assessments with the Higher and Advanced Highers.
“Despite Mr Swinney’s categorical assurances to me earlier this year, the SQA has created a system which has massively added to teachers’ workloads, essentially expecting them to take on the huge additional work of an SQA marker.
"Given that Scotland’s school system was already dependent on an average of eleven hours of overtime per teacher per week, this will push many beyond their breaking point and simply cannot be allowed to happen.”