A SENIOR Ayrshire teacher has blasted the Scottish Government’s decision not to decide until March on whether school exams will go ahead this year.

The educator, who wishes to remain nameless, said it highlighted a prominent, underlying issue.

They added: “A lot of the education policy certainly in the last 10 years, it’s not been about children, it’s definitely not been about teachers, it’s been about perceptions, maintaining powers and headlines.

“To spend all of that time as students and teachers planning for that exam in May, and then potentially being told that that exam won’t go ahead in March, would be an appalling situation to be in.

“I’ve got another three months during which I’ll finish my higher and national five courses, but at the end of that I would have prepared my students as best I can for the final exam so I don’t really see at that point, what would the point of the decision being made then.

“I don’t think it’s got anything to do with anybody’s safety, it’s got a lot to do with people wanting things to go ahead because it’s the easiest course of action and not necessarily because it’s the best.”

The teacher also explained that the lack of exams recently has highlighted how the current system is becoming outdated, even if the alternative systems put in place by the government was not one which they completely agreed with.

They said: “There’s such a lack of ideas that nobody really knows what else they could do (other than exams), its not that there aren’t ideas somewhere.

“There’s maybe another political issue, if they don’t have exams back this year then there’ll be a cohort of pupils leaving school in sixth year who’ve never sat real, proper, rigorous SQA exams and it’s not actually done any harm.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As set out in August last year, exams will go ahead if it is safe to do so. They will only be cancelled if public health advice says it isn’t safe for them to take place – for example, if there are restrictions on gatherings. If this were to happen, awards would be made on teachers’ judgements based on normal in-year assessment.

“Due to the unpredictability of the pandemic, we cannot know now what the public health advice will be for exams in the spring, but learners, parents and teachers will be told of any changes to plans as soon as possible.”