John Swinney has been warned against inflicting “even more damage” on Scotland’s pupils after it emerged he is planning to scale back next year’s exams. Mr Swinney is expected to cancel next year’s National 5 exams, with around 80,000 pupils awarded their certificates on the basis of coursework only. The Deputy First Minister is also considering plans to scale back Highers, the gold standard of the Scottish education system, basing them on a shorter school year with fewer areas of some subjects being covered. But parents’ group Us For Them Scotland, which helped force Mr Swinney into a U-turn on reopening schools, said children could not afford to have “their exams disrupted again.” In a letter to the Education Secretary, the group said it was unfair to leave them “hanging this way” and urged to make an “unequivocal statement” the 2021 exam diet will go ahead as normal. The Scottish Tories said Mr Swinney’s “plan A” must be to press ahead with the exams and “exhaust all avenues before scrapping them.” Mr Swinney is expected to outline his plans before the October school holidays, which starts in three weeks, but the Conservatives urged him to make an urgent Holyrood statement.
