Scottish Qualifications Authority (Higher History Review)

First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 7 November 2024.

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Photo of Pam Duncan-Glancy Pam Duncan-Glancy Labour

Yesterday, the Scottish Qualifications Authority published its review into the collapse in higher history attainment, saying that a poor standard of learner performance accounts for the drop. After marking its own homework, essentially, the SQA has said that there was no problem—despite teachers and pupils saying otherwise. One teacher has said of the review:

“it’s ... a gut punch. It makes liars out of all the teachers who were in that room”.

In 2020, the First Minister presided over an exams fiasco that punished the poorest pupils, and here we have another. How many more exams fiascos is the First Minister happy to oversee before he accepts that his Government’s so-called reforms are nothing more than a rebrand?

Photo of John Swinney John Swinney Scottish National Party

The higher history review was published by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The report was independently reviewed and endorsed by the director of qualifications and assessment at the Welsh Joint Education Committee, which is the largest awarding body in Wales, so there has been no example of anybody marking their own homework. The report has been independently reviewed.

Obviously, this is a matter of distress. I understand the concerns about the performance of young people when they do not get the qualifications that they hoped to achieve. However, what has been undertaken is a thorough and independent review of the concerns, which has been peer reviewed by another awarding body.