The Scottish government has announced national qualification changes next year that it claims will take pressure off both teachers and pupils.
From the coming school year, pupils who fail National 5 will no longer have the fallback of being able to gain a National 4 through the process known as “recognising positive achievement” (RPA), John Swinney revealed.
This means that the government’s promise to scrap National 5 unit assessments - blamed for creating a “testing treadmill” in schools - is set to finally become a reality, almost three years after the original announcement to do so in September 2016.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, welcomed the news, but criticised the education secretary and deputy first minister for failing to make a decision in time for pupils and teachers this year.
Earlier this month, Tes Scotland revealed that the EIS had written to Mr Swinney in August, saying Scottish pupils and teachers were facing another year of “excessive workload and over-assessment” due to the government’s failure to make “a clear decision” about whether unit assessments would continue to be available this year.
The union called for Mr Swinney to make a decision on the removal of RPA in time for the next school year - something he has now done with this announcement.
Mr Swinney said: “We have been very clear that the use of recognising positive achievement should only be used in exceptional circumstances.
“All of our young people deserve to experience a rich and meaningful learning and teaching experience, tailored according to their needs. Part of that is making sure that they are presented at the correct level for national assessments.
“SQA [Scottish Qualifications Authority] figures show that this year alone, recognising positive achievement accounted for over 10 per cent of all reported National 4 entries.
“Teacher judgement is key to ensuring that learners are presented at the most appropriate level for their needs and aspirations.”
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The EIS welcomes the deputy first minister’s decision to bring an end to recognition of positive achievement arrangements for the next session and to provide clarity to schools on this now.
“While we would have preferred an announcement in time for this year’s cohort, the statement means that, going forward, schools will be able to plan course options for pupils with greater certainty, and in ways that could reduce assessment-related workload for students and teachers.”
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of secondary headteachers’ organisation School Leaders Scotland, said: “It’s very useful to introduce clarity of timescale and intention into the system. We can now move forward to participate in a meaningful dialogue and discussion, in the wider context of the important and legitimate place of National 4 as part of young people’s learning pathways.”
Plans to scrap unit assessments were first announced in September 2016 at the behest of the teaching unions, which said they were leading to excessive teacher workload and over-assessment of pupils. But Mr Swinney reneged on that decision on “an interim basis only” and “in exceptional circumstances” six months later after realising that pupils could leave S4 with no qualifications.
Last year, many schools flouted Mr Swinney’s rules on the use of the unit assessments. More than one in 10 pupils presented for N5 during the exam diet earlier this year were also put through the required number of units to be eligible for an N4 through RPA.
Teachers therefore reported that the decision to remove unit assessments was having little effect on their workload. In some cases, they said things had got worse because of the changes to the N5 exams introduced to compensate for their removal.
