PUPILS are facing longer exams as part of a shake-up of school qualifications.

Under a revision of Highers for 2018/19 some extended exams will last for more than three hours and include a break for pupils.

The changes have been introduced after internal assessments for a raft of national qualifications were scrapped by the Scottish Government.

John Swinney, the Education Secretary, took the decision after concern from unions that the assessments were creating an unsustainable workload burden for teachers and pupils.

However, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) argued the move would devalue qualifications unless assessment of the material was transferred to the final exam.

That means final exams will be longer with experts arguing the move runs counter to the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) which was supposed to reduce the importance of formal examinations.

Keith Topping, professor of educational and social research at Dundee University, said the longer exams were “not in the spirit of” the revised curriculum.

He added: “This seems like another step in the covert dismantling of CfE by the government who seem to have no idea what to do to remediate Scotland’s declining position in the wold of education except resort to traditional and failed prescriptions.

“Exams militate against the kind of disadvantaged student the government keeps saying it wants to support.”

Professor Louise Hayward, an assessment expert from Glasgow University, said the SQA’s options were limited by tight timescale for change.

She said: “In the longer term it will be important to look at the examination system as a whole in light of recent changes and to reflect on its relationship with the aspirations of CfE.”

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union said removing unit assessments was the right appraoch because of the “unsustainable assessment burden” on pupils and teachers.

But he added: “There is a feeling the SQA has gone further than it had to with the changes.

“Because the government’s qualifications review group didn’t meet for over eight months there was no forum to challenge that.”

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said that it was “totally unacceptable” for there to be delays in guidance for teachers.

An SQA spokesman said the removal of unit assessments required examiners to strengthen assessments to protect the “integrity, credibility, breadth and standards” of courses.

He added: “The changes have been carefully thought through and consist of a mixture of approaches determined by the specific assessment needs of each subject.

“For the vast majority of Higher subjects, exams will remain one part of a mix of assessment that will continue to include the coursework that candidates tell us they particularly value.”

The SQA said course documents would published by the end of April with updated support materials, including specimen exams and coursework, following between May and September.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Changes to the qualifications will free teachers to teach.

“Teachers will not have to undertake formal unit assessments at three points during the year – a task they told us was significantly contributing to their workload, and a move welcomed by teaching unions when it was announced.”

The Times Educational Supplement Scotland said 31 out of 40 subjects at Higher will see longer exams from 2018/19. Five subjects will have exams introduced for the first time.

Many exams will be extended to three hours, with teachers fearing pupils with special needs could need four hours to complete them.