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The 2021 #SQA exams were cancelled today, to the surprise of many – but this story has been brewing for a long time. Let us take you back nearly nine months…
(1/17)
The 2021 #SQA exams were cancelled today, to the surprise of many – but this story has been brewing for a long time. Let us take you back nearly nine months…
(1/17)
It was way back on 19 March that the *2020* exams were cancelled, as Covid-19 swept through Scotland. https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-exams-cancelled-scotland
(2/17)
(2/17)
As early as 28 April, unions were calling for cancellation of the *2021* exams – here’s what @STTAunion had to say – which were already being described as “a monster [teachers] are not able to deliver”. https://www.tes.com/news/cancel-next-years-exams-says-teaching-union
(3/17)
(3/17)
A few days later, when SQA CEO Fiona Robertson faced questions at @ScotParl, MSPs’ concerns were mounting about the SQA’s preparedness for an exam-free year, with the planned processes seen as "profoundly unfair and utterly statistically flawed". https://www.tes.com/news/sqa-grilled-over-fairness-system-replacing-exams
(4/17)
(4/17)
In June, @EISunion – the country’s biggest teaching union – was warning that it would be "impossible" to run Scotland’s 2021 exams in the usual way, but for months the education secretary insisted that the plan was for them to go ahead. https://www.tes.com/news/impossible-deliver-usual-exams-2021-says-union.
(5/17)
(5/17)
On 4 August the 2020 SQA results were published and, as many had predicted, chaos ensued. There was outrage that students from less affluent areas were more likely to have had results downgraded after the algorithm deployed by the SQA did its work. https://www.tes.com/news/SQA-results-day-poorest-far-more-likely-have-higher-pass-downgraded
(6/17)
(6/17)
Just a week later, we were writing about a “momentous” U-turn, after it was decided that teacher estimates – rather than the bête noire that was the SQA’s algorithm – would be used to determine students’ results. https://www.tes.com/news/sqa-results-swinneys-announcement-momentous
(7/17)
(7/17)
Two days after that, and nine days after the SQA results were published, education secretary John Swinney faced – and survived – a vote of no confidence. https://www.tes.com/news/sqa-results-john-swinney-survives-no-confidence-vote
(8/17)
(8/17)
After the dust (sort of) settled on the 2020 results, there were fresh calls to cancel the 2021 exams. On 27 August, @TesScotland reporter @Emma_Seith asked first minister Nicola Sturgeon if Scotland was headed towards a second exams debacle. https://www.tes.com/news/sqa-we-ask-sturgeon-are-we-headed-second-exams-fiasco
(9/17)
(9/17)
Ross Greer, the Greens’ education spokesperson, has been at the forefront of calls to cancel the 2021 exams – here he is in September. He welcomed today’s news, but said the SNP had taken six months to catch up with his party’s policy. @Ross_Greer https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-SQA-new-call-2021-scottish-exams-be-cancelled
(10/17)
(10/17)
As Covid-19 surged through Scotland again in the late summer and early autumn, updates on how SQA courses and exams would be run in 2020-21 were repeatedly delayed. https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-sqa-exams-update-delayed-after-rise-covid-cases-1
(11/17)
(11/17)
On 7 October, the education secretary announced that the 2021 National 5 exams would be cancelled, but that some form of Higher and Advanced Higher exams would still go ahead (if Covid-19 allowed). https://www.tes.com/news/many-2021-exams-cancelled-scotland-amid-covid-fears
(12/17)
(12/17)
By 5 November, the main proposal for making the 2021 exams fair to all – whatever the disruption of Covid – was be to start them two weeks later. (But some teachers were aghast that their subject’s exams would actually start *earlier* than usual.) https://www.tes.com/news/sqa-exams-delayed-two-weeks-response-covid
(13/17)
(13/17)
Days later, Wales moved to cancel all its 2021 exams, putting pressure on Scotland to follow suit. Scottish schools and colleges were well into the academic year and still preparing for two eventualities: exams and no exams. https://www.tes.com/news/gcse-and-level-2021-exams-scrapped-wales
(14/17)
(14/17)
A day after that, there was widespread dismay when the education secretary indicated that it could be mid-February before a final decision on Scotland's 2021 exams was made. https://www.tes.com/news/decision-cancel-exams-could-come-late-february
(15/17)
(15/17)
In early December, critics such as @BarryBlackNE were warning that it was “increasingly difficult to see how an equitable exam diet is possible next year”. https://www.tes.com/news/why-mass-covid-testing-would-make-education-fairer
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(16/17)
All of which led to today. The 4pm statement took many by surprise - beforehand, there were reports that exams were likely to go ahead. And the story continues: now the focus is on whether, this time, the alternative to exams will be fair to all. https://www.tes.com/news/scotlands-2021-exams-cancelled-education-secretary
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