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Today, we found out how she plans to do that.
The big headline is that the government has rejected the recommendation to end exams for most S4 students. This had been proposed as part of the Hayward review of qualifications and assessment, and was always going to present a huge challenge to the status quo. This is, as I often remind people, a quite conservative and inward looking country, to its great disadvantage.
Apart from sticking to the annual S4, S5 and S6 exams (and wasting a huge amount of teaching time as a result) the government seems to be trying to delay things as much as possible, so there are different aspects of what is now theoretical thoroughly the amendment process will be handled later, or by other people.
The defense for all this can-kicking seems to be ‘pragmatism’, and indeed the official response to the Hayward report includes the following paragraph:
“Importantly, all the steps set out in this response are achievable, taking into account the capacity of the system, at a time when our schools are facing a range of complex challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as issues in relating to attendance and behaviour.”
Gilruth wants to position herself as the one asking smart questions instead of just rushing in with changes, but in reality it looks more like she doesn’t believe her government, or the people of her scope, up to the size of the task. That’s a very, very big problem but, to be fair, it’s not immediately clear that she’s wrong.
Despite the education secretary’s debating club rhetoric, no one expected exam reforms to be implemented immediately – indeed, many expected this to be a process that would take up to a decade. But the thing is, you have to start somewhere.
Today, Jenny Gilruth could have accepted the recommendations of the Hayward review and begun the process of building the capacity needed to implement them; instead she seems to have decided it was all too hard and kicked as hard as she could into the longest available grass. In doing so, she has admitted that her government cannot deliver the kind of changes that could make a real difference.
If one were to be extremely cynical, they might wonder if the current government is hoping that someone else will have to take this on from 2026.
The SSTA and NASUWT trade unions have supported the decision to retain exams for most S4 pupils, and with them the endless grinding cycle which creates so many problems and contributes to unsustainable teacher workloads, but it is not this is really surprising.
Why? In order for the unions to support the abolition of exams, and the change to the system proposed by the Hayward review, they would need to have seen evidence that it would be handled appropriately. This government has never provided that, and its track record across education (as well as other areas, such as ferry building) does not inspire confidence in its competence. Remember, this is the same party that used to promise to eliminate the attainment gap and then spent years making teachers’ lives more and more difficult as it fought desperately to find solutions.
In that context, the fact that the unions have supported the status quo is a great indictment of this government, whether they realize it or not.
And while we ask questions about competence, what are we to make of the fact that this government has spent a lot of time, and a not inconsiderable amount of money, commissioning reviews only to decide that action cannot be taken key recommendations?
What exactly was the purpose of all that work, and what would be the point of doing more, if the government – as has been clearly shown – cannot manage the processes properly?
What does it say about the governing party that Jenny Gilruth doesn’t seem to have any faith in the work of her predecessors?
And how, above all, are we supposed to have any faith in the promises made now by the latest education secretary?
Almost ever since the 2020 exam debacle, when the Scottish Government and SQA applied for, and tried to defend, an exam algorithm that targeted the poorest pupils for grade reductions, we were told that Scottish education reform was necessary (which is true) and on the horizon (which we can now all but confirm is completely false).
The SNP set up reviews of the structures of education bodies, started a so-called National Debate about education, and asked a highly respected academic to form a reform group to look at major changes to the current exam system.
Throughout, we have been told that real, fundamental, radical reforms are on the table – that this is about transforming this aspect of Scottish education properly to make it fit for the 21st Century.
It was a nice idea while it lasted.
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