Leadership fails the humanities exam

The Scottish Government could have reacted more effectively to the challenges of school assessments

Springtime is exam time, always a season of tension for the young people going through those lifedefining tests. This year, with unique arrangements in place because of the Covid crisis, it would be understandable if the angst was even more acute. Students are not sitting exams, the Scottish Government insists. But the students themselves may beg to differ.

The intense diet of "assessments" across their chosen subjects, completed in school halls under strict conditions, give the appearance of being just as stressful, and formal, as proper exams. Worse, they're being completed during the normal diet of classes because, after all, who needs exam leave when they're not sitting exams?

So our hearts go out to the students and families enduring these difficult weeks with none of the reassurance of knowing that a time-served, moderated process – endured by generations of pupils before them – keeps things fair.

The Covid crisis brought us to this point, but crises tend to expose preexisting weaknesses. The Scottish Government, and educational institutions, could have reacted more effectively to the challenges they faced. Data in The Scotsman today offers further evidence of the iniquity of last year's exam fiasco, where students in poorer areas were disproportionately marked down by the SQA when compared to their counterparts from more affluent areas.

Those downgrades were reversed, of course, after an outcry. But that shocking episode should have led to greater introspection than the First Minister displayed this week when, asked about concerns about this year's exams, she offered that “as I’m finding out anew after the election, I and the government are accountable for all of these things”. Well, yes.

Ms Sturgeon did go on to note that “Young people have suffered more than any group in our society” through Covid. And on that point, the First Minister was absolutely correct.

But young people would be better served by a thoughtful dissection of the unfairness of the arrangements last year, acknowledgement they are enduring makeshift exams by another name this year, and a promise that those responsible are learning for the future too.