A student writes: 'Skills-based qualifications will be warmly welcomed'

AS A fourth-year high school pupil, already more than three-quarters of my way through the Standard Grade course, when asked for my impressions of the qualifications, my response would be that of many other teenagers: "They're pointless."

Spending two years on one subject is bound to bring about uninteresting and irrelevant work, however the volume of pointless work in most courses is overwhelming.

The exams themselves, as well as the majority of course work, focus on meaningless or difficult-to-relate-to issues.

There are many things that I learn - particularly in the past few months covering in Modern Studies the details of European farming laws - where I found myself asking "What is the point of learning this? I'll never need this in real life".

The context of questions and the uninteresting nature of the coursework rarely relate to real-world situations, more a "this is right, this is wrong" attitude to learning, especially in maths where I don't plan on ever needing to solve a quadratic formula equation in a real-life scenario, yet a month of the course is spent on it.

In the exams, especially in the science subjects, many questions are multiple choice, questions which require little or no thinking and can be answered simply by process of elimination.

It feels as though most of the course is pointless, learning things that, after the exam will eventually be forgotten and which have no relevance to anything outwith a learning environment.

Having spent the past few weeks learning how to spell strange and obscure words in English, I have since completely forgotten every word. It feels as though the time has been wasted.

When it comes to choosing university courses, in my opinion the Standard Grades become irrelevant. Because, as I understand it, most universities will simply look at Highers or Advanced Highers.

This adds to the feeling of wasted time, however, some university courses may see a skills-based qualification as more useful.

The Standard Grades do, however, produce strong academic-based qualifications, and introduction of Nationals may lessen the impact of some of the original courses as the new exams will concentrate less on the academic side of things and more on skills-based learning.

Despite this attraction of being more practical, people could be put off the courses because they would prefer a more academic approach.

ON THE other hand, the introduction of philosophy on top of religious studies makes the subject more appealing to some.

Introduction of a media course will, I'm sure, bring about more interest in social sciences. While the appeal of a practical cookery course will encourage more people to learn what is essentially a life skill.

As a preparation for Highers, the Standard Grades just don't meet the bill. The jump between the credit Standard Grade course and the Higher course, I've been warned, is huge.

I believe the introduction of more practical based, skills-orientated qualifications will be welcomed with open arms.

OLI CROWE