On Thursday, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth announced that the balance of assessment used for senior phase pupils in Scotland will change, with greater use of internal and continuous assessment to award final grades.

This shift forms part of the Scottish Government’s response to an independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (IRQA), which was led by Professor Louise Hayward and published in June 2023.

In a statement to Parliament, the Education Secretary confirmed that exams will remain part of the overall approach to assessment, including at National 5, while some more practical courses may not have written exams in future.

She also committed to ensuring that qualifications reform is done in full partnership with teachers, pupils and other professional bodies, with a secondary Headteacher to be seconded to the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA), and its replacement Qualifications Scotland (QS), to oversee that.

In addition, the Education Secretary confirmed that she will set out a renewed national approach to improvement later this year, setting out short, medium and longer term improvements for Scottish education.

I suspect this announcement will be well received by pupils, their families, and the education sector as a whole.

We know examinations play a part in assessing someone’s learning, but we also know that placing so much weight on one test taken typically on one day, when they’ve engaged in months of learning and completed regular, ongoing assessments will not always lead to young people receiving the results they deserve.

I welcome this announcement and trust that this reform will address some of the issues that young people and their families have repeatedly raised with policy makers.