TEACHERS have issued a warning over last minute changes to the content of qualifications.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) said subject specialists from physics, biology and computing studies had raised concerns about National 5s.

Examiners reformed the qualifications after burdensome internal assessments were scrapped, but teachers were told not to expect differences to course content.

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the SSTA, said some of the changes by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) were announced after pupils had already begun courses.

He said: “The SQA said the removal of National 5 units would lead to no change to the content of courses, but the response from our members in many subjects is that is not the case.

“Changes in content that leads to the creation of new teaching materials with classes that in many cases have already started without any time or additional resources totally undervalues the work of teachers in secondary schools.

“In some cases the changes are sensible, but making changes at this stage makes no sense.”

Mr Searson said another major concern was that the changes created more of a difference between National 4 and National 5 courses despite the fact pupils studying different levels were often taught in the same class.

Courses were altered to ensure pupils would be assessed on materials removed when the internal assessments were scrapped.

An SQA spokesman said: “Teachers should not see any change or increase in content of the courses, with the exception of National 5 biology which has had some content removed.

"The way content was described previously was across both the unit information and the course materials.

"With the removal of units, this full content is now all contained within a streamlined course document that was recently published."