Professor Louise Hayward’s report on assessment and certification completes the recent trilogy of consultations on Scottish education. She is to be congratulated – it must have been very hard to balance the views of those seeking radical change (say, the removal of all exams) versus the views of us old traditionalists who continue to see ‘the Highers’ as the important benchmark for young people, and the essential means of entering university.
Still, her approach, if not entirely original, is bold. She proposes a Scottish Diploma of Achievement – a complex model which will no doubt come under a great deal of scrutiny. This retains exams at Higher and Advanced Higher and ditches them in S4, thus ending the three-year exam tyranny which has dominated Scottish education for ages.
These exams would be part of modular courses with a final grade based on a mix of examination and coursework. The proposal also requires students to do a project tackling "a significant question or problem” and is completed by a “personal pathway” that is “owned by the learner” and which reflects their broader interests and achievements.
The latter is clearly a significant gesture towards those respondents to Hayward’s survey who want students to have a broader opportunity to record their achievements in terms of the four ‘capacities’ of the Curriculum for Excellence. How significant this part of the diploma would be to universities, colleges or employers remains to be seen.
