A few weeks ago, the Scottish Government said it was confident schools across Scotland were preparing well for the introduction of the new Highers, which have been revised to reflect the new Curriculum for Excellence, or CfE.

According to the Government, schools would implement the examinations in line with the national timetable in the 2014/15 session.

We now know this was wishful thinking and yesterday the Scottish Government admitted defeat and said schools should delay the introduction of the Highers if they were unprepared. The announcement came a short while after Glasgow City Council said it would allow schools to delay for a year because there had been so many teething problems with the introduction of the new National Qualifications which are replacing Standard Grades. Around 65,000 pupils will sit those exams next year.

The fact the new Highers have been delayed should come as no surprise as there have been indications for some time it might go this way. Earlier this year, a survey of members of the Educational Institute of Scotland found that more than half of them lacked confidence the Nationals could be introduced efficiently. Many teachers have also been calling for a delay to the new Highers on the basis they have not had enough time or support to prepare for CfE alongside their other responsibilities.

So what are we to make of the fact that the Highers have now been delayed and what are the consequences for pupils? It is certainly embarrassing for the Scottish Government, particularly in the light of those reassurances of just a few weeks ago. It also means there will be no seamless transition. Other councils such as Edinburgh have already intimated they will follow a similar path to Glasgow, which means it is likely pupils in some council areas will sit the new Highers while others will not. It is the kind of discontinuity education ministers did not want.

However, the effects of this delay in some local authority areas should not be exaggerated. Some parents' groups have expressed concern about possible delays, and the implications for their children, but they should be reassured that pupils who sit the new Higher, and those who do not, will still emerge with qualifications that are recognised by employers and universities.

Clearly, it would also have been irresponsible for a council to carry on with the new Highers in the face of genuine concerns about schools' preparedness and teachers' workload. As reported in The Herald today, school staff are seriously worried about this workload and some of the unnecessary bureaucracy around the introduction of CfE.

If support for CfE, and its aims of broadening learning and making it more relevant to life after school, is to remain strong, the delay must not be wasted. Alasdair Allan, the minister for learning, says he has set out actions that everyone in education should take to deal with the teething problems and, in his words, root out pointless bureaucracy. This must be done before all Scotland's pupils sit the new Highers in 2015/16.