Curriculum for Excellence is causing massive confusion all over Scotland

It’s the biggest change to Scotland’s education system for a generation.

The introduction of the so-called Curriculum for Excellence has been beset by delay, controversy and confusion.

Last week the Government announced new Highers could be postponed in some areas, creating further confusion. Standard Grades have already been scrapped for new National 4 and 5 exams and some pupils are sitting the first set of CfE prelims without knowing whether they’ll be sitting new Highers or old exams next year. Dozens of parents, teachers, even examiners have contacted The Sunday Post with fears for what’s dubbed the Guinea Pig Generation.

Bill is an English teacher on the west coast of Scotland. He spoke to our reporters about his concerns CfE, on the condition of anonymity.

“We’ve got to cope with CfE. It’s as simple as that. But big mistakes have been made along the way and they’re still being made.

“We’ve had examples of assessments from the SQA that have so many errors in them. One of them actually added up to more marks than was on offer, and there have been spelling mistakes. That was a final, checked document.

“One example assessment I received was about The Pearl by John Steinbeck. The intro says it takes place in the small village of La Paz in Mexico, South America. Mexico’s in Central America.

“Mistakes like that are unforgiveable. They should be getting checked. But when you point that out, you’re told well, they’re just examples.

“One of the biggest problems we’ve found is that you start with a class not knowing whether everyone’s going to be a National 5 or a National 4 pupil. When you find someone’s not up to National 5, they’ve really got to keep going with the course, because you can’t teach the two courses together so they can’t drop down to National 4.

“Plus we have to make up our own marking scheme for assessments. So my marking scheme might be totally different to the one in Skye, or Ayr.

“I’m having to say to my 4th year pupils that they’re having to work harder than 4th years at any other time, because there just isn’t time to teach the course in the four periods we have. Sorry, but you’re going to have to do extra homework.

“I would think it’s very demoralising for children. Plus they’ve now changed the format of the example assessments they started off with over a year ago. It’s like quicksand moving all the time.

“So we’re telling kids what we taught you three months ago is no longer valid. So you have to learn something else.

“It’s a shame because National 5 has the potential to be good. But the way it’s been handled has been totally cack-handed from the beginning.

“On the other hand, National 4 is just going to be ‘tick a box’. It’s not going to have any credibility employers are going to realise that.

“The frustration is they took something pretty robust, Standard Grades and Intermediate twos and threw them out.

“My worry is there’s a whole bunch of kids in the middle who will suffer. If your child is very, very focused and puts the work in they’ll probably be all right. The kids at the top will do well. Kids who would previously have sat Foundation exams are catered for with National 4. But there’s a whole bunch in the middle, though, who’ll struggle. They’ll find it murder.

“However, I think good teachers will make it work. Because quite simply we knowit’s a bit like saying if you throw that person a rubber ring, they’ll survive. If you throw them a lump of lead, they’ll drown. Good teachers will know how to keep things ticking over.

“Labour started this back in 2007 and the SNP should have dumped it. They should have realised it was a hot potato. Now the question is will they introduce the new Highers?

“They’re supposed to lead on from National 5 courses. But the fact is it looks like a lot of councils are going to postpone it. The problem with that is, kids will have been taught new skills for the new Highers. Now they’ll have to be taught old skills for the old Highers. I’m pretty sure there will be schools making an absolute pig’s ear of this.

“The worst of it is, parents won’t know. They won’t have a clue. Parents are only told on a need-to-know basis.”

Many other education professionals have contacted The Sunday Post with concerns similar to Bill’s.

Given their roles, it’s understandable they don’t want to be named. Indeed, some are under contract not to contact the Press.

Nevertheless, one teacher told us CfE is “damaging” pupils. He said: “All were confused as were their parents and many of their teachers.

“Teachers and pupils are really struggling but no-one is willing to speak up about it. They’re having to cover hundreds of outcomes for each pupil with around 25 kids per class this is unmanageable and damaging kids.

“Many teachers are handing in work for verification across various subjects and the verifiers don’t have a benchmark to compare it to instead they’re using the work as the benchmark.

“You cannot have a standard set by the work it must be a standard decided independently.

“This has been rolled out without any real thought to how the aims can be achieved.

“There are no exemplars or very few of the exams. No coursework examples. Teachers are being told one thing by schools, another by the government and having to work to the SQA.

“At the same time, inspectors are going round schools nodding and smiling at posters and videos produced by pupils when the basic literacy and numeracy is suffering.

The idea the system was broken in the first place is wrong. What we needed was a joined up system that took pupils through school to work or further or higher education this new model doesn’t match up.

“Pupils will not be ready for the challenges in the working world. While the old system was far from perfect, this is no improvement.”

Another teacher insisted new qualifications are just “dumbed down” versions of Standard Grades.

He said: “Children are not learning as much as before. Courses have been dumbed down. The levels children are deemed to be at until the end of S3 are determined by age and not ability.

“What is actually happening with the lowering of standards of children’s literacy and numeracy skills is being hidden by these fixed levels for example all pupils moving into secondary school are classed as level 3 developing, regardless of ability.

“The new qualifications are a dumbed down version of Standard Grades so don’t stretch more able pupils.

“Only having one school year to complete work means less able pupils can’t keep up with work, or have the chance to improve as they could with Standard Grades.”

An SQA examiner agreed with the “dumbing down” notion. He said: “The old system worked well there were good courses that kids enjoyed. I feel the new exams have been dumbed down.”

And an education worker from Aberdeen said: “CfE’s undoubtedly worse than Standard Grades. Activities and examinations are dumbed down. Some pupils will leave school without sitting an exam. Teachers have vague guidlines to work from.

“Employers and universities will be unhappy about the standard of pupil schools are producing.”

But he believes CfE will be hailed a “success”. “Inevitably exam results will be good because politically it would be a disaster for pupils to do badly.

“The calibre of student will suffer though.”