Fiona MacLeod: Scottish school exam system to undergo a radical overhaul

Published on Tuesday 4 August 2009 22:04

EXAMS in Scottish schools will soon undergo a radical change.

Standard Grades were introduced in the 1980s as an inclusive exam system which would allow every child to leave school with a qualification.

It replaced a system which was seen to favour the privileged and disadvantage those who were less academically able by giving them nothing.

However, what was once the Standard grade's key attribute came to be seen as its main fault.

With all candidates achieving a grade, it was seen as too easy to achieve. Teachers also complained it did not prepare pupils for the greater challenge of Higher.

As a consequence, Standard Grades have increasingly become unpopular with teachers and discredited.

New exams called Intermediate 1 and 2 were introduced as a midway point between Standards and Highers. However, critics said the system was now too complicated.

The introduction of a new school framework called A Curriculum for Excellence aims to create an all-encompassing system from ages three-18-years and offers the chance to completely overhaul the exams system.

Instead of Standard grade, a new system of "Nationals" will be introduced from 2013.

From 2013, Standard and Intermediate grades will be replaced by National qualifications at levels 4 and 5. National 5 will be an externally assessed exam taken at the end of S4 and graded by letter. National 4 will be taken in S3 and assessed internally by teachers. Pupils will not receive a grade.

Students will sit the first of the raft of new compulsory qualifications, which include tests for numeracy and literacy, in 2014.

Government statistics show that, at present, 20 per cent of pupils leave school with a Standard Grade at general level – the equivalent to the new National level 4 qualification.

That suggests the same percentage would probably not go on to sit the National level 5.

With literacy and numeracy tests also being only internally assessed, those who do not take a level 5 qualification would leave school without sitting a single exam.