The attainment of Scottish pupils has fallen significantly after schools reverted to using exams to assess performance for the first time since 2019.
This year’s results showed that the overall higher education transition rate, widely used for students aspiring to university, fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9%. The pass rate for national A’s, awarded mostly to 16-year-olds, fell from a peak of 89% in 2020 to 80.8%.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority said the fall marks the end of teacher-led performance assessment after exams were canceled in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid crisis, with a return this year to pre-pandemic exams and external assessment.
The SQA added that despite this change, pass rates had increased compared to 2019, the last year to include formal exams. In 2019 the pass rate for National 5s was 78.2% and for Highers 74.8%. Pupils have received extra support this year and a ‘generous’ approach to assessment has been adopted due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, with grade thresholds lowered for most subjects.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scotland’s Education Secretary, said she was confident this year’s approach had led to “reliable, consistent and fair outcomes for our young people”.
“This is one of the strongest sets of results for any exam year, which is particularly impressive given the significant challenges learners are facing as a result of the pandemic,” she said.
The return to exams also had the effect of significantly reducing the attainment of children from Scotland’s most deprived communities compared to teacher-based assessments during the pandemic, reducing their chances of getting into university.
SQA figures show the number of higher A grades given to pupils from the most disadvantaged areas has fallen by more than a third from 35.8% in 2021, when grading was led by teachers, to 22, 1% this year. However, this is an increase on 2019, when 16.7% of the most deprived pupils achieved A grades.
In comparison, 45.3 per cent of pupils from the most deprived parts of Scotland achieved As this year, compared with 57.8 per cent in 2021 and 38.7 per cent in 2019. Somerville said her government was investing £1 billion in raising achievement. “We know the pandemic has disproportionately affected disadvantaged learners,” she said.
The 2020 assessment process, at the height of the Covid crisis, was marred by controversy over the way the Scottish Government and SQA handled marking.
John Sweeney, Somerville’s predecessor as education minister, faced a vote of no confidence and was forced to reinstate 120,000 teacher-assessed results that had been downgraded by the SQA. The agency is being phased out and replaced by 2024 as part of reforms sparked by the dispute.
Michael Mara, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, said the results masked “system-wide problems” as schools were operating on a reduced post-Covid curriculum, meaning there had been a “significant loss of learning and knowledge in Scotland’s education system’.
He said a return to exam grading by ministers also penalizes the poorest pupils, while cutting funding for local councils in Scotland.
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“This SNP administration has dramatically cut funding to Scotland’s poorest communities and we are years away from any meaningful reform,” Mara said. “They have no plan, they have no leadership, and their continued failure to do so is an ongoing national scandal.”
Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the Education Institute of Scotland (EIS), Scotland’s largest teaching union, said students and staff had achieved great results in very difficult circumstances; she said most students had never taken formal exams before because of the Covid crisis.
“Teachers consistently rise to the challenge to ensure the best possible outcomes for young people,” added Bradley. “Returning to an exam diet this year was unnecessarily hasty, perhaps a step backwards and added stress to teachers and students.”
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