Standard Grades axed in shake-up

Originally published in Evening Times, 12/6/2009

STANDARD grade exams are set to be scrapped as part of a major shake-up of the education system.

The secondary school tests, along with Intermediate exams, will be replaced with new National Qualifications in a bid to simplify Scotland's complex exams system.

The changes are proposed by schools bosses amid accusations that future generations of pupils will leave school without taking formal exams.

The new qualifications - covering traditional subject areas - will be sat by pupils at the end of fourth year.

New tests will also assess literacy and numeracy and will address concerns from business and higher education institutions that too many pupils leave school without basic skills.

Higher and Advanced Higher exams will be left as they are, although course content will be modernised.

The changes will be brought in during 2013-14.

Fiona Hyslop, the Education Secretary, said the new exams would deliver a more streamlined system. She said: "The changes I am announcing will ensure key strengths of the existing arrangements will be retained, while long-standing issues, such as over-assessment and unnecessary complexity in the system, can be dealt with."

However, there has been severe criticism from teachers, parents and opposition politicians over the changes.

They say the lack of an external exam for candidates of lower academic ability, could create a "two-tier system". They will be assessed under a new exam system, called the National 4 qualification, Margaret Smith, education spokeswoman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "We look to be heading to a situation where there are children coming out of our schools at S4 who will not have any qualification that has had any grading attached to it at all."

The Educational Institute of Scotland, the country's largest teaching union, warned that, without sufficient funding, the changes would not be successful.

Ronnie Smith, the union's general secretary, said: "It will be essential for the Scottish Government to provide the funding to implement the new arrangements successfully."

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