August 10, 2022

Scotland Sees Pupil Rate Fall in Highers and National 5s Grades

A After schools started using exams again to evaluate student performance for the first time since 2019, the pass rates for Scottish students significantly declined. According to this year's results, the overall pass rate for Highers, which are frequently taken by students aspiring to attend universities, decreased from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9%. The majority of 16-year-olds who take the National 5s have a pass rate that dropped from 89% in 2020 to 80.8%.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority declared that the return of pre-pandemic exams and external marking this year marked the end of teacher-led performance grading after exams were postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid crisis.

…this is one of the strongest ever sets of results for any exam year, which is particularly impressive given the significant challenges learners have faced as a result of the pandemic…

The SQA further stated that despite this change, pass rates were higher than in 2019, the last year with formal exams. The pass rate for National 5s and Highers in 2019 was 78.2% and 74.8%, respectively. Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, students this year received additional support, and grades were assigned using a "generous" approach, with grade thresholds being lowered for most subjects.

Scotland's education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, told the media that she was certain that this year's methodology had resulted in "a credible, consistent, and fair set of results for our young people." “This is one of the strongest ever sets of results for any exam year, which is particularly impressive given the significant challenges learners have faced as a result of the pandemic,” she said.

The return to exams also resulted in significantly lower pass rates for kids from Scotland's poorest neighbourhoods than during the pandemic, which decreased the likelihood that they would enrol in college.

The education spokesman for Scottish Labour, Michael Marra, claimed that these results concealed "system-wide problems" because schools were operating under a condensed curriculum following Covid, causing "a significant loss of learning and knowledge across Scotland's education system."

Posted in News and tagged News, Scotland, Scottish Students, Pass Rates, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Scotland's Education System
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