Parents and teachers across Scotland have hit out over a reduction in the choice of subjects in secondary school.
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence was supposed to deliver a broader education in the first three years of secondary with less pressure on pupils.
However, because pupils now wait a year longer to start formal qualifications many schools offer fewer subjects.
Written evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s education committee, which is looking at the issue, highlights the concerns.
Read more: Pupils studying fewer subjects under new curriculum
Iain Aitken, a principal teacher of geography in Ayrshire, said: “The system is fundamentally broken.
“There is an urgent need to revert to a system where pupils can follow at least eight subjects in S4.”
Jim Sutherland, a retired headteacher from the Highlands, said the reduction in subjects had “significantly” narrowed choice.
He said: “I have evidence of overall attainment dropping and attainment at the highest level dropping when the number of subjects reduced.
“Many young people are forced to concentrate on the subjects they will require to
progress to the next stage of their education which means they are no longer
taking art, music and drama.”
Another teacher, Richard Booles, pupils were being asked to choose too soon and were therefore making ill-informed decisions.
Read more: Subject choice 'discriminates' against poor
“The only motivation seems to have been in cost cutting and not to improve the standard of teaching,” he said.
Parents Mark and Sally Gunn, from the Highlands, said the new structure had “seriously damaged” the progress of the most academically able pupils.
Their submission said: “The enforced reduction to just six subjects at S4 from eight or even nine has been a catastrophe.
“Schools cannot maintain teaching numbers as a result, with a vicious circle and loss of languages in S4.”
Mike Robinson, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, said individual choice was being restricted.
He said: “It is clear children in most state schools are given as few as five and up to seven subject choices. Every independent school offers eight.”
A spokesman for the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union said the “compression” of qualifications in S4 had “required” a reduction in the number of subjects chosen.
Read more: Geography under threat as pupil numbers plummet
The Scottish Association of Geography Teachers said: “We are very concerned that the widespread narrowing of the curriculum has reduced choice for individual pupils thus limiting their career opportunities too soon and restricting the opportunity to change career pathways further into the senior school.
“Because the system is now so fragmented countrywide, pupils no longer have equal opportunities.
“Regarding the overarching aims of providing more breadth and depth for the development our young workforce, we appear to be doing just the opposite.
“Far from closing the attainment gap and raising standards, it appears to make our young people less competitive with serious consequences for the future workforce in Scotland.”
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