The credibility of an examination system is important. But the days of learners relying on just one examination body or system alone are numbered, in systems around the world. There are alternative pathways to university, further education or work which challenge the historical singular “results day” for all, where young people feel that with one text message or manila envelope their futures are sealed or dashed.

In Australia, already fewer than one-third of Australian students use the traditional points-based Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) to get into university. Western Sydney University chancellor Peter Shergold, who chaired a review into learner pathways of secondary students, sees the ATAR “dying a slow death” over the next five years as students and their families shun the one-size-fits-all testing regime, and undertakes a more varied approach. 

For example, digital micro-credentialing platform Credly, working with universities, awards students with “digital badges” for competencies they can exhibit during their time at school, in the workplace or at college, skills that are not shown on traditional school leavers’ certificates. It can give prospective employers a clearer portrait of her competencies and attributes.

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Background: How the SQA defended the results fiasco in Scotland

But alternatives to traditional examination transcripts are not just for students who plan to enter work or further education. The Mastery Transcript Consortium, counting over 300 of the world’s most elite schools and universities, is a response to points systems no longer providing enough differentiation between top students vying for Ivy League places. Universities and schools are co-designing and testing an alternative to a simplistic points system, with initial encouraging responses from universities.

Instead of points, the Mastery Transcript removes grades and replaces them with a concrete visualisation of each learner’s unique strengths. The software platform that drives it allows universities to quickly scan not just the academic performance of students, but the mix of skills they possess. In short: universities should be able to attract the right mix of students based on more than just scores.

In Scotland, there are thousands of teachers and leaders already developing learner pathways that don’t rely solely on August’s results. At Calderglen High School, in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, for example, students undertake courses from a dizzying choice of micro-credentialed “masterclasses” alongside more traditional courses and are rewarded for their successes throughout the year, not just in the first weeks of August.

And partnerships in some schools allow learners in school to make their first steps into college or university well before any results days.

It is not just the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) which will perhaps see their monopoly on qualifications across schools diminish in the coming years, and a diminished importance assigned to the day they release their results. A similar scandal hit the International Baccalaureate in April, England’s scandal started before the results were even released, and Australians are already questioning the credibility of their national qualification, the ATAR.

After its own results debacle earlier this year, the International Baccalaureate has kicked off a new school session by proactively changing curriculum itself. Its highly reputed Diploma Programme will be slimmed down, covering far fewer topics so that students are not unfairly hit in their results in 2021.

Communications to learners from examination boards this year have been corporate, tardy and opaque, at a time when their clientele value transparency, dialogue and speed; this also contributes to the erosion of trust many learners and their families may be sensing.

But this opacity may lead to the opening up of space for fresh seeds of innovation in the way learners go about defining their pathways in life - and the ways in which employers, colleges and universities go about recognising their success.

Ewan McIntosh is the founder of NoTosh, an international education and skills development company based in Edinburgh and Melbourne. He is a former languages teacher and national advisor on learning and technology in Scotland. He tweets @ewanmcintosh