As the Intermediate exam in the Higher Still programme continues to ease out Standard grade, an announcement in The TES Scotland of July 26, 1974, reminds us that we are at the end of a 30-year cycle: A committee to review the examination arrangements for pupils completing the fourth year of secondary education in Scotland is being set up by the Secretary of State, Mr William Ross. Its chairman will be Mr Joseph Dunning, principal of Napier College of Science and Technology, Edinburgh...
The committee’s remit is to identify the aims and purposes of assessment and certification in the fourth year of secondary education in the light of the education and social changes since the introduction of the O grade and the SCE (Scottish Certificate of Education); to consider what form or forms of examination or assessment would be most likely to meet the needs of fourth year pupils of varying academic ability; to make recommendations for any changes in the present arrangements that might seem desirable and to consider the effect of such changes on the (Higher) Grade and (Certificate of Sixth Year Studies)...
Among the topics likely to be discussed by the committee are the merits of a terminal examination.
