Council delays start of new exams

Jan 31 2012

A local authority is to postpone introducing exams related to the Curriculum for Excellence by a year.

New National 4 and 5 qualifications are being brought in to replace Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications from 2013/14.

Schools across Scotland will introduce the new qualifications for the current S2 year group, but East Renfrewshire Council has announced it will do so with its current S1 year group - thereby delaying it for a year.

The council said the decision was not a comment on the quality of the new national qualifications.

It said it was in a "unique" position as it dropped Standard Grades in 2005 and introduced Higher Still courses.

In a statement, the council said: "The qualifications which our schools currently use will continue to be available for a few years beyond the demise of Standard Grades and at education dommittee we approved the department's proposal to introduce the new nationals to our current S1 pupils, which is one year later than those schools who currently use Standard Grades.

"This will give our staff the opportunity to develop the new courses in a managed and measured way, ensuring that the experiences in the classroom will be as high a quality as they are at the moment. Our staff have engaged fully in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and the introduction of the new nationals and will continue to do so.

"Our pupils and parents are reassured by this approach and our staff look forward to receiving the detailed course exemplars and working with them to ensure they are prepared to introduce the new nationals from school session 2013 - 2014 with confidence.

"We must stress that we are not commenting on the quality of the new nationals, but are using the distinctive characteristics of East Renfrewshire's schools which offers our staff the opportunity of one further year."

Education Secretary Michael Russell said: "We are working closely with Education Scotland on delivery of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). I am aware of the currently unique circumstances of East Renfrewshire where pupils take Intermediate not Standard qualifications, in line with plans for implementation of new qualifications under CfE, Standard qualifications will be replaced after 2013 and Intermediates will end a year later for all learners currently in S2 or below."