SQA interim chief says politics will not halt reform

The Herald Scotland

15-05-2025

Officials say the formal changeover to Qualifications Scotland will happen in December 2025.
Despite this, the SQA's interim chief executive John Booth has said that work reforming the SQA is already underway. Furthermore, although he has confidence that MSPs will work together to pass the legislation, he said no political roadblocks will stop the organisation from changing.
'We are spending a lot of time rebuilding our relationships and trying to win back people's trust where we have lost that trust. The shift to the use of more digital technology to deliver qualifications and assessments will continue.
'The reform that we are doing of qualifications, looking at the balance of assessments, looking at the portfolio of qualifications and making sure that that is fit for purpose and giving young people and other learners the skills they need to thrive in the modern workplace.
'All of that work can and will continue. This is a transformation journey.
'The transformation activity will happen regardless of the passage of the bill.'
The bill's progress through Holyrood is looking like an increasingly rocky road, however.
As reported in The Herald, MSPs submitted more than 350 amendments to the bill, and there have been other reports that the Education Reform Programme Board has concerns about the cost of reform and the 'tight timeline' for delivering changes to the exam body.
The Education (Scotland) Bill promises a restructuring of some aspects of the current SQA, including making dedicated roles for teachers and students and siloing the organisation's awarding and accreditation duties.
Currently, the SQA serves two main functions: awarding qualifications such as National 5s Highers, vocational and more; and regulating all qualifications providers in Scotland.
What to do with these powers and where to house them has become a major point of contention.
SQA officials currently describe a system in which the organisation's awarding and accreditation functions are already separate and operate independently.
However, opposition MSPs and voices outside of Holyrood maintain that awarding and accreditation powers cannot be fully separate as long as they are under the same roof. A government-commissioned report explicitly argued that the two functions should be formally separated and carried out by separate bodies.
Three major amendments to the current bill, one lodged by the Scottish Conservatives, one by Scottish Labour, and one by the Liberal Democrats, sought to strip Qualifications Scotland of its accreditation powers and move them to another organisation.
It is unclear what will come of these, however. At a recent meeting of Holyrood's Education, Children and Young People's Committee, committee members who had lodged these amendments were met with resistance from Cabinet Secretary Jenny Gilruth who pointed to a series of challenges in splitting the SQA's powers.
The debate eventually circled around to discussions of finding a solution involving the "least worst" options and warnings from Ms Gilruth that spending too much time finding alternatives could delay reform.
While the details are debated in Holyrood, work is underway to reshape the SQA, how it operates and, more importantly for some officials, where it fits in the education system.
Many early critics of the education bill worried that it did not go far enough in forcing changes in the ways the SQA operates. For instance, the apparent total rollover of staff and retention of its key powers do not address the NASUWT's concerns about the SQA's 'over-emphasis on assessment and bureaucracy which is disempowering teachers.'
The bill does, however, leave room for the new qualifications body to self-police and to address its problematic relationships with teachers and students.
As unions, the government, education experts and SQA leadership have all warned, however, it is not possible to legislate a change of culture and much of the crucial work of reform will need to come from within the organisation.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, Mr Booth said that reforming the country's qualifications body – whether it is called the SQA or Qualifications Scotland – cannot wait for legislation to be passed or for an official name change.
Mr Booth joined the SQA in 2021 as the director of communications. He said that one of the reasons he believes that the transformation work will continue with or without any changeover is because he feels there is a 'huge appetite for change' in the SQA and that transformation might have come sooner without the setbacks to relationships obstacles in delivery that were caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
'If Covid had never happened, I think a lot of the things I'm describing now in terms of transformation would be happening anyway. We are an awarding body that needs to always move with the times.
'There is a huge appetite for change in this organisation, and it frustrates me sometimes that I think there is a sense that somehow the SQA is acting against the interests of the education system.'
Recent scandals have illustrated this. Following the release of the 2024 exam results, the SQA was engulfed in a controversy over the declining pass rates in Higher History.
Beyond the results themselves, however, emails and parliamentary hearings revealed evidence that SQA officials had told a group of history teachers to recall a teacher survey critical of the SQA's culture and that the organisation was serving as an intermediary between an SQA employee and concerned teachers on behalf of the employee's union.
Since then, there has been a change in leadership but stakeholders are still waiting to see how the next few months will unfold. The latest exam season has already seen hiccups, with the SQA accidentally releasing incorrect files to prospective markers and a late change to the schedule sparking controversy among some subject teachers and students.
In December, however, there should be a new system in place and Mr Booth said that there will need to be a new way of working regardless of the name above the door.
'Seven months today, subject to Parliament passing the education bill, Qualifications Scotland comes into existence.
'Seven months sounds like a long time, but it is not. We have got to make sure that we move successfully and change from the SQA to Qualifications Scotland and everything that entails.
'But that does not stop on day one of the organisation. Trust is hard won but it is easily lost. So, you cannot stop for a minute in terms of continuing to ensure people have trust in you.'