S4 exams should be brought forward, say education experts
Should they happen before the Easter holidays?
Last updated 18th Dec 2023
Scottish education experts are calling for S4 exams to be moved to before the Easter break, with pupils beginning S5 after the holiday.
Currently, pupils sit exams in the early summer before starting their S5 studies for around a month before the summer holidays.
The Commission on School Reform (CSR) is urging ministers to make the change to give pupils more time for their Higher courses, in consultation with the Scottish Government on its new Education Bill.
"Actual reform in Scotland moves at a glacial pace"
In its submission to the consultation, the CSR said: "Since the pandemic a veritable plethora of reports on education have been published, but actual reform in Scotland moves at a glacial pace. While the pace of reform is often blamed, rightly, on Government, it is exacerbated by other actors being disingenuous in what they want.
"While we do not doubt that implementation of radical change will take time, this also implies that the current system, with all its faults, is here to stay.
"Exams continue to be subjected to a narrow, formulaic assessment system.
Pupils losing valuable teaching time
"Pupils continue to lose valuable teaching time to revision and assessment, and the system continues to fail to motivate a significant minority of pupils, exacerbating the serious behavioural issues in our schools.
"We cannot keep abandoning more and more pupils to a system everyone agrees is inadequate."
The group - made up of educational experts – is also pushing for the separation of S4 exams from those in the two latter years, and for them to consist of just one paper to shorten the exam timetable.
Broad general education - where pupils study a wider range of subjects in their first three years at secondary school - should be reduced to two years, the group added.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Education Secretary has been clear that she would take the time needed to consider Professor Hayward's proposals for qualifications reform carefully.
"Key to that has been listening to the views of our teachers, young people and a range of other stakeholders and indeed parliament."