School pupils in Scotland will sit exams this year, the Deputy First Minister has said, despite high absence rates due to coronavirus.
Speaking before the Covid-19 Recovery Committee, John Swinney confirmed the first full diet since 2019 would go ahead as planned.
In January, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the latest a decision could be made on assessments was the end of March, although she stressed it was her "firm intention" for the diet to take place.
READ MORE: SQA under fire over 'petulant' attacks on education advisor
"The exam diet will go ahead, and that's the approach that has been taken," Mr Swinney said in response to Tory MSP, Murdo Fraser.
On March 29, Scottish Government statistics show, some 19,387 pupils were not in school as a result of Covid-19. A total of 5,081 staff were absent on the same day. The figures are down compared with earlier in the month. However, pandemic-linked disruption to teaching and learning in recent weeks has fuelled concern over whether young people will be ready when the first exams are held in late April.
The new BA.2 strain of the Omicron variant has contributed to a spike in cases, which the First Minister said on Wednesday appears to be levelling off.
When asked what support can be offered to pupils forced to miss exams because of the virus, Mr Swinney, who is self-isolating after testing positive, said: "There are routine arrangements in place to address the implications of that on a pupil by pupil basis and no pupil will be disadvantaged by those arrangements."
READ MORE: Teachers' union raises fears over rise in 'disruptive violent behaviour'
He added: "The Scottish Qualifications Authority will work with individual schools to make sure that no pupil is disadvantaged in that respect."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel