Exams system ‘warping’ school curriculum and leaving ‘two term dash’, MSPs told

Scotland’s exam system is “warping the curriculum” in schools and leaving teachers and youngsters with a “two term dash” for key qualifications, MSPs have been told.

Both Professor Louise Hayward, who led an independent review of Scotland’s exams system, and headteacher Peter Bain – who was also part of the review – highlighted how the current system gives teachers and students just two terms to prepare for Highers in S5.

Calling for “substantial change” in the system Mr Bain, the executive head teacher of Oban High School and president of School Leaders Scotland, told MSPs on Holyrood’s Education Committee: “Qualifications and assessment are driving the curriculum and warping our curriculum and changing the curriculum to one that is not best-suited towards 21st century society in Scotland.

“We need to address the two term dash, we need to consider a three year examination system.

“We’re the only country in the world that examines kids three years in a row for example.”

His comments came after Prof Hayward told the committee that keeping National 5 exams, which are sat by pupils in S4, “leaves the problem of what is often described as the two term dash unaddressed”.

In a major report, published in 2023, Prof Hayward recommended that the number of exams sat by pupils in their final years of school be reduced.

Her report had called for exams to be scrapped for S4 students, with these replaced by continuous assessment.

She told the Education Committee there was “widespread recognition of the need for and the importance of change”, insisting that “the current system is not getting it right for every child”.

Prof Hayward said she hoped a statement, due in December, would reveal an “overarching vision” from the Scottish Government for education and “how that links to qualifications”.

Mr Bain meanwhile said talks he has had with Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth had highlighted “fiscal challenges” as the key reason for a “lack of progress” in taking forward the recommendations made by the Hayward review.

He said: “I have had the opportunity to discuss with the Cabinet Secretary on a number of occasions the fiscal challenges, and that seems to be the main driver for the lack of progress with taking forward the 26 recommendations from the report.”

While he accepted that “is a crucial consideration”, he added: “The current system does not work for the young people in our society.

“We do need to make changes and we need to make substantial changes to education provision in relation to qualifications assessment.”

The current qualification system is “driven towards measuring what is referred to as ‘five plus’” – the number of students who achieve five Highers – Mr Bain told MSPs.

But he added: “By doing that we’re missing about 60% to 70% of the population.”

He suggested there should be a “wider range of courses, delivered in a more appropriate manner, that allows our children to learn subject material, knowledge and skills that best place them for the workplace or university or college”.

The headteacher said: “We don’t do that just now, we’re teaching to the test and we have been for 100 years. We know that that is a problem.”

Meanwhile, Douglas Hutchison, the executive director of education at Glasgow City Council, quoted Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre that “learning for its own sake is a decadent luxury”.

Mr Hutchison spoke about the “high stakes exam system that we have at the moment”, as he told the committee: “I keep thinking of that Christopher Brookmyre quote where one of his characters is saying she hated school, she hated the syllabus, it was so exam-focused that learning for its own sake was seen as a decadent luxury.

“That’s a Christopher Brookmyre quote, but I think it sums up what a lot of people think who have gone through the system, that learning for its own sake is a decadent luxury.”