Highers cancellation puts teachers in a difficult position – John McLellan

Just in case any teachers from my son’s school read this column, he’s absolutely gutted by the decision to suspend the 2021 Higher exam programme.

Teachers face having to explain why they have approved a mark which denies a pupil a place on a chosen course (Picture: Lisa Ferguson) Higher History S5/S6 Armadale Academy students/pupils wear masks in the classroom along with their teacher West Lothian has been placed into Tier 3 alon with the rest of the Central Belt COVID 19, CORONA VIRUS - From today teachers and S4-S6 pupils must wear face masks/face coverings in classrooms in the new tier 3 and tier 4 COVID 19 restrictions. Senior pupils and their teachers are being advised to wear face coverings in classrooms for schools in the new level 3 and 4 restriction areas. The Scottish government has released new guidance on school safety to take account of the five-level Covid alert system, which begins on Monday. Other guidance advises staff to wear face coverings in all schools, where social distancing is not possible. And parents should wear masks even at drop-off and pick-up.

He is certainly worried that, instead of exam leave, May will now be filled with extra classes, but that will be least concern in secondary schools across Scotland as teachers come to terms with the direct responsibility for student assessments with potentially life-changing implications.

Putting the onus on teachers for grading their students for qualifications which mean the difference between acceptance or rejection for courses of all kinds is an extraordinary extra burden for them to bear in the light of last year’s experience.

There is a world of difference in making indicative assessments which are not the final word, or marking prelim exams when there is time to improve, but making teachers directly responsible for final grades changes the nature of the relationship.

If anything, last year’s row over automatic post-code moderation merely underlined it, with teachers as angry as affected families when the system gave hard-working pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds lower than expected marks.

But teachers know not every student can get straight As, but now it will be for them to explain why they have approved a mark which denies a place on a chosen course.

The result will be another year of above-average pass rates, but universities and colleges will just be expected to cope. Places are finite, so the response will inevitably be fewer unconditional offers and raised entrance qualifications. And another uproar.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

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