Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment - final report: Scottish Government response

Foreword

Following my appointment as Education Secretary I received a wide range of reports to consider, including the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA) led by Professor Louise Hayward.

Listening to Scotland’s teachers has been central to my approach as Education Secretary. Education reform does not sit in a silo and those we entrust with the delivery of knowledge and skills in our classrooms will be crucial to driving the improvements we all want to see.

Throughout my engagement with Scotland’s teachers, they have been consistent in the view that the pandemic has fundamentally changed our schools. This is a view I share. The wider context, compounded by constrained public finances, cannot be ignored.

I have been struck by the challenges with attendance, relationships and behaviour in our schools. Indeed, it was as a result of my direct engagement with Scotland’s teachers that I chose to delay the introduction of planned legislation last year, instead building in additional time to hear directly from the profession. Given the engagement this extra time has allowed and having reflected on the results of the national teacher survey, I am more convinced than ever that our approach to improving education must be built on the existing commitment and professionalism of our teachers.

For a number of years there has been an understandable focus on the Senior Phase and qualifications pathways in Scottish education. However, if all of the finite collective energy and resources of our teachers and schools continues with this narrow focus, then I believe we will miss the opportunity to improve approaches to early learning and primary. These are the key building blocks that will support and sustain the progress of young people.

Our teachers work hard every day to help improve the outcomes of Scotland’s children. I also know from experience that any change to curriculum and assessment practice comes with the risk of creating additional workload pressures for teachers. Therefore, the reform and improvement activity which this response sets out, builds directly on the hard work and success already evident in our schools. I propose a focussed, incremental and deliverable plan for change.

This will include the secondment of a secondary headteacher into the current qualifications body to lead a new chapter in meaningful engagement with teachers, drawing on their knowledge and experience from our classrooms, to inform the design and implementation of qualifications reform.

Further, we have commissioned advice on how the organisational design and leadership structures of Qualifications Scotland^[1], our new qualifications body, can best deliver our reform priorities. This includes advice on structures which will ensure a greater focus on the delivery of qualifications and related support services to schools. Fundamentally, if we are to reform the Senior Phase then it is vital that Qualifications Scotland is open to new and different ways of working and earns the trust of Scotland’s teachers, parents and carers. The voice and input of children and young people will also be essential, reflecting the ambitions and legal obligations that the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Act also places on Scottish Ministers.

I acknowledge that education alone cannot address all of the issues our children and young people face post-pandemic. However, we do need to empower our teachers to work in partnership with our national bodies to lead the changes to curriculum and assessment that will improve engagement and outcomes for our young people. The legislation I have introduced to create Qualifications Scotland will put the knowledge and experience of pupils and teachers at the heart of decision making.

Reform to qualifications must also be set in the context of our wider commitment to improving education in Scotland. To that end, I will set out an overarching improvement plan later this year as part of the National Improvement Framework. This will give an opportunity to set out the short, medium and longer term priorities for Scottish Education, with a clear focus on excellence and equity through improvement.

A series of regional events, initially with secondary headteachers and followed by engagement with primary and early years leaders, will provide further opportunities to engage with and test this longer-term plan. Crucially, the change we need to see in our schools will only happen if we trust Scotland’s teachers to lead it while ensuring young people themselves have a clear voice in the process itself. That will always be my approach as Education Secretary.

Jenny Gilruth MSP – Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills