Question reference: S5W-33557
- Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 26 November 2020
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by John Swinney on 26 November 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in extending the remit of the OECD Review of Curriculum for Excellence, and how the OECD will undertake the additional work on assessment and qualifications.
Answer
The current, agreed, remit for the Review already covers assessment and qualifications. However, as part of the suite of work I announced following the 2020 SQA exam results, I asked the OECD to expand this work to have a deeper focus on the future of assessment and qualifications approaches in the Senior Phase curriculum in Scotland. The aim of this is to analyse Scotland’s approach to assessment and qualifications and develop options to enhance our approach, informed by international good practice.
Officials have been working with the OECD to scope the additional work on assessment and qualifications, and we have agreed with the OECD that this work will involve:
- Employing an additional international expert to undertake a desk-based analysis of Scotland’s approaches to student assessment in relation to national qualifications in the Senior Phase in comparison with approaches in other education systems. The comparative analysis will consider education systems that are relevant to Scotland’s experience and objectives in education.
- A second seminar with stakeholders (in addition to that planned for the wider Review) to present and discuss the preliminary findings from the desk-based analysis; and to gather stakeholders’ feedback and suggestions on how to move forward.
- The production of a comparative paper building on the desk-based analysis and stakeholder engagement seminar and provides a set of options for Scotland to consider.
This work will be aligned with the current OECD Review of the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, and the final comparative paper will be published later in the summer 2021, following the publication of the CfE Review Report in June 2021.
I have also written to the Convenor of the Education and Skills Committee to update them on this work.