MAY has arrived, bringing warmer weather and blue skies—but for around 130,000 Senior Phase students across Scotland, this also marks the start of exam season.
This year’s exams occur at a time of heightened speculation about the future of our exam system with little progress made on the implementation of any of the suggestions put forward by the Hayward Review in 2023 and with Qualifications Scotland set to begin operations this Autumn.
There has rarely been a more pressing time for reform. Scottish learners face too much assessment.
In the Senior Phase, three consecutive years of prelim exams, assignments and final exams create unnecessary anxiety at a time of spiralling mental health issues. This year’s exam diet has brought unprecedented logistical challenges with ever-increasing numbers of pupils requiring alternative assessment arrangements for written exams, including separate accommodation, use of digital technologies and extra time, placing huge resourcing pressure on our schools.
At the same time generative AI models such as Chat GPT pose challenges to coursework integrity and raise new questions for teachers trying to uphold academic standards. Exams certainly have their place, but, as the Hayward Review highlights, there needs to be more rigour and less reliance on rote-learning.
We must start teaching our children how to use generative AI ethically to support their learning and our exam body must accept that it will be used. As a student teacher in England in the 90s I recall being told that the Scottish Modern Foreign Languages courses were superior because the use of a dictionary was permitted whilst it was banned by English exam boards, forcing students to memorise a wider range of vocabulary.
My tutor argued in favour of the Scottish approach on the basis that in any workplace we would have access to a dictionary to support writing and translation tasks and that exams should replicate this approach.
The same argument applies to calculators and should apply to generative AI and there is now an urgent need for clear national guidance on AI in Learning.
At St Columba’s School we see from the subject choice decisions that our pupils make that career-related learning is very important to them and their decisions are increasingly made with a career path in mind.
Advanced Higher Maths is consistently our most popular choice of subject in Senior 6 as pupils value the preparation that this course provides towards studying Science and Engineering in particular, as well as Business and Finance related courses.
Business Management is our most popular National 5 and Higher subject, and this links directly to the high percentage of our leavers who go on to study business related courses at university. Nevertheless, we must continue to highlight the benefits that all subjects offer and the skills that can be developed through studying them. Studying a subject for the simple pleasure of learning more about it rather than for its direct relevance to a career path should never be discouraged.
As a Languages teacher, the national decline in the uptake of Modern Foreign Languages saddens me greatly. In our global economy the softer skills that we develop through Language learning are invaluable, including learning to understand and embrace other cultures.
The analytical skills honed through practising translation, and the eye for detail that is fostered through reading comprehension skills, are among the many lasting benefits that young people can gain from the study of a foreign language.
There is a clear demand for all subjects to offer career-related learning and to support the development of skills such as problem-solving, communication skills and cooperative learning – skills that our young people will need more than ever in a workplace where technology can replace so many human tasks.
As we stand at a crossroads in Scottish education, the challenge is to design an assessment system that prepares young people not just for exams, but for life in a rapidly evolving world.
Originally posted in The Herald Scotland Education Supplement
