Education Secretary John Swinney said Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland are to be cancelled in 2021.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, he said: “Instead we will adopt the new model that has been developed and base awards on teacher judgment of evidence of learner attainment.
“This is safe. It is fair. And it better recognises the reality of the disruption so many pupils have already had to their learning.”
Mr Swinney has previously announced that the National 5 exam diet – roughly equivalent to GCSEs in England – which was due to take place in the spring of 2021 was being cancelled as a result of Covid-19.
In a statement to Holyrood, Mr Swinney said pupils had already “lost significant learning time”.
He said they had lost teaching time at the end of the last academic year, when schools were still closed, when “pupils normally start to study for the following year’s qualifications”.
Mr Swinney added: “That has now been compounded by the disruption many have suffered as they were obliged to self-isolate, had to learn from home or even saw their school closed.
“And we know that the level of disruption to learners has not been equal.”
Mr Swinney said: “There is no getting around the fact that a significant percentage of our poorest pupils have lost significantly more than other pupils’ teaching time.”
