I was nowhere near top of the class at school. In fact, I doubt I would have survived the downgrading and eventually would end up writing about education as an academic researcher.
There are countless numbers of young people, at disadvantaged schools like the one I went to, who faced exactly that reality this week.
Early on results day, I discovered the figures which showed the unheeded warnings that the most disadvantaged pupils would be impacted the most by downgrades was true.
The u-turn yesterday was very welcome, especially for those students, but it should never have been needed. This whole process has been one of great uncertainty and could have been avoided from the start had the SQA and Scottish Government listened to the warnings from early as April.
This week’s change – that original teacher estimates will now be accepted, unchanged – would not make for an ideal alternative assessment model if they were planned from the start but it is fairer than marks being set by postcode. Lessons must be learned by those at the top as to why this system was selected in the first place.
An urgent review into this saga is the right thing. While the last few days have rightly focused on righting wrongs for those emerging from the most recent exam diet, a much bigger problem looms for next year’s candidates; nothing like this can be allowed to happen again.
Before this crisis, we knew that the current system was not an effective measure of pupils’ ability. The factors beneath this – which drive the attainment gap – have been exacerbated.
Underlying this whole saga – of course – is the substantial and stubborn poverty-related attainment gap in Scotland. This gap, driven by social inequality and not the classroom of course, will have almost certainly have widened during lockdown.
In ‘normal’ years, the most affluent students are as likely to get five Highers as the poorest are to achieve one. Closing this gap, must remain the overall focus in Scottish education.
There is no question that the disruption next year threatens to be as bad if not more than this, with the risk of further lockdowns, and a compounding of the barriers faced during the last term of school.
Therefore, it is welcome too that the role of exams and assessment is also to be reviewed. If we can come out the other side of this with a more holistic assessment of young peoples’ abilities the new normal may actually, for the better, be new.
Anything less than this would be a disservice to the poorest pupils who have been pushed from pillar to post.
Barry Black is a postgraduate researcher on education at the University of Glasgow
