SQA to be scrapped and replaced as MSPs vote through education reform
MSPs have voted to pass legislation which will see Scotland's exam body scrapped and replaced.
The existing Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) will be dissolved, and a new organisation called Qualifications Scotland set up in its place. It is expected to be running by this autumn, after exam results have been released.
Plans are also in place to appoint a chief inspector for educational settings. The changes come nearly five years after the exams scandal in 2020, where marks for over 124,000 pupils were downgraded after formal exams had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
However, they have prompted objections from opposition parties that the replacement organisation is "little more than a rebrand", after the legislation was passed by 69 votes to 47.
Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: "Instead of abolishing the SQA today the Bill allows the current leadership to transfer wholesale."
She insisted that "on reform this is a job unfinished".
Similarly, Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs said the changes, in the Education (Scotland) Bill would not deliver the "meaningful reform for Scotland's education system which is urgently needed".
He argued that the new exams body was "little more than a rebrand of the SQA".
Mr Briggs added: "The SQA needed an overhaul, not a cosmetic makeover, and the changes proposed fall way short of what is required to ensure the organisation can operate effectively and is properly accountable."
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has rejected those claims. She said the Bill would "fundamentally create a new and a different type of organisation which works with the teaching profession differently".
In addition, it will establish a new chief inspector of education, who will be tasked with inspecting nurseries, schools and colleges across Scotland.
She added there was a "cast-iron guarantee" that the person who takes up this post would have "suitable teaching and educational leadership experience".
Ms Gilruth said: "Through the creation of a new qualifications body and an independent inspectorate, the Bill enables a more responsive, trusted and effective national education infrastructure."
The legislation, passed after two nights of late sittings at Holyrood, will provide "the scaffolding which supports the wider range of education reform", she added.
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Mr Briggs, however, said: "It does feel like the Bill has been rushed through Parliament in the last week of term."
He added that "this Bill has not been the opportunity many of us had hoped it would be", claiming it was "clear SNP ministers' policies and half-baked reforms are not delivering for our young people".
Ms Duncan-Glancy was also critical, saying: "We needed a qualifications system fit for the future, one that respects the efforts of learners, supports the judgment of teachers, and earns the trust of employers and universities.
"We needed a curriculum that is broad and inclusive, we needed an inspectorate that can challenge where necessary but also celebrate excellence. But on reform this is a job unfinished."
Ms Gilruth said afterwards: "The successful passage of this legislation shows this Government is serious about implementing the changes needed to drive improvement across Scotland's education and skills system.
"The creation of a new, national qualifications body is about building the right conditions for reform to flourish - the new body will ensure that knowledge and experience of pupils and teachers are at the heart of our national qualifications offering.
"The new inspectorate body will also have greater independence and the power to set the frequency and focus of inspections, moving this function away from ministers, to His Majesty's Chief Inspector."
She added: "Taken together, our major programme of education and skills reform will bring about the changes needed to meet the needs of future generations of young people."
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