MSPs pass legislation to scrap SQA for new Scottish exams body

Holyrood has passed legislation that will abolish Scotland’s exam body – despite claims from opposition parties that the replacement organisation is “little more than a rebrand”.

Both Labour and the Conservatives voted against the Bill, which will dissolve the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and set up a new organisation, to be called Qualifications Scotland to take its place.

This is expected to be up and running in the autumn of 2025 – after this year’s exams results come out.

It comes almost five years after the 2020 exams scandal, where marks for more than 124,000 youngsters were downgraded after exams had to be scrapped as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “Instead of abolishing the SQA today the Bill allows the current leadership to transfer wholesale.”

She insisted that “on reform this is a job unfinished”.

Similarly, Scottish Conservative education spokesperson said the changes, in the Education (Scotland) Bill would not deliver the “meaningful reform for Scotland’s education system which is urgently needed”.

He argued that the new exams body was “little more than a rebrand of the SQA”.

Briggs said: “The SQA needed an overhaul, not a cosmetic makeover, and the changes proposed fall way short of what is required to ensure the organisation can operate effectively and is properly accountable.”

But speaking as the legislation was passed by 69 votes to 47, eeducation secretary Jenny Gilruth rejected those claims.

Instead, she said, the Bill would “fundamentally create a new and a different type of organisation which works with the teaching profession differently”.

In addition it will establish a new chief inspector of education, who will be tasked with inspecting nurseries, schools and colleges across Scotland.

Here she said there was a “cast-iron guarantee” that the person who takes up this post would have “suitable teaching and educational leadership experience”.

The education secretary said: “Through the creation of a new qualifications body and an independent inspectorate, the Bill enables a more responsive, trusted and effective national education infrastructure.”

The legislation, passed after two nights of late sittings at Holyrood, will provide “the scaffolding which supports the wider range of education reform”, she added.

Briggs, however, said: “It does feel like the Bill has been rushed through Parliament in the last week of term.”

He added that “this Bill has not been the opportunity many of us had hoped it would be”, claiming it was “clear SNP ministers’ policies and half-baked reforms are not delivering for our young people”.

Duncan-Glancy was also critical, saying: “We needed a qualifications system fit for the future, one that respects the efforts of learners, supports the judgment of teachers, and earns the trust of employers and universities.

“We needed a curriculum that is broad and inclusive, we needed an inspectorate that can challenge where necessary but also celebrate excellence. But on reform this is a job unfinished.”

Gilrtuh said afterwards: “The successful passage of this legislation shows this Government is serious about implementing the changes needed to drive improvement across Scotland’s education and skills system.

“The creation of a new, national qualifications body is about building the right conditions for reform to flourish – the new body will ensure that knowledge and experience of pupils and teachers are at the heart of our national qualifications offering.

“The new inspectorate body will also have greater independence and the power to set the frequency and focus of inspections, moving this function away from ministers, to His Majesty’s Chief Inspector.”

She added: “Taken together, our major programme of education and skills reform will bring about the changes needed to meet the needs of future generations of young people.”