By Democrat reporter
A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request has uncovered details of the SQA asking the OECD to make edits to its draft independent report into Curriculum for Excellence, including one “key theme” which it acknowledged was linked to “recommendations including organisational reform”.
The party says the document haul confirms that the Scottish Government and its agencies were attempting to influence the report’s content and key themes, with a possible knock-on effect for its recommendations and outcomes.
The party’s freedom of information request, reported in The Times this morning, shows the SQA and its Chief Executive Fiona Robertson “fact checking” the OECD’s draft report. It includes:
- The SQA and its Chief Executive Fiona Robertson disputing what theydescribe as “one of the key themes that emerges” and which it is noted “is also used as the basis for a number of recommendations including organisational reform”. This related to the OECD’s draft stating “there does not appear to be yet a successful alignment of qualifications and exams in Senior Phase with the CfE vision”. The SQA argued in its fact checking that this lacked evidence and context. A version of the line was nonetheless retained in the final report, with the SQA disputing it publicly, but these documents now show that it sought to have this section altered before the report was ever published.
- The SQA unsuccessfully argued against a section that said “…qualification arrangements should at least not actively undermine the aims and purposes of the wider system. Is this happening in Scotland? The OECD heard mixed views on this.”
- The SQA also said“We have significant concerns about some key elements of the report and the evidence and analysis that underpins it”, describing the provision of “detailed comments” alongside “specific points of factual accuracy”.
- The SQA accusedthe OECD drafters of providing commentary that is “very unhelpful and pre-emptive” of further review work on assessment and qualifications.
- Fiona Robertson complained that she and the SQA were only afforded a 70 minute meeting with the OECD review team.
John Swinney looking over Nicola Sturgeon’s shoulder.
It was exactly a year ago that Scottish Liberal Democrats first uncovered that the Scottish Government was in possession of the draft OECD report, highlighting that ministerial editing was underway on the document John Swinney insisted couldn’t be published until after the election.
In February 2021, Scottish Liberal Democrats also held a debate and vote at Parliament on breaking up the SQA and Education Scotland, defeating the government and paving the way for their overhaul.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie, left, said:“The Scottish Government and its agencies have regularly built in and exercised the right to ‘fact check’ independent reports. Once again, that doesn’t tell a fraction of the story of what was going on behind the scenes.
“This document haul confirms that there were efforts to influence the report’s content and key themes, with a possible knock-on effect for its recommendations and outcomes.
“The Chief Executive of the SQA tried to secure changes to a theme of a report which was known could be used to justify the reform of the organisation – even its break-up. This was the SQA trying to save its skin.
“Only John Swinney and the SNP could set up an independent review of Scottish education but schedule in months of ministerial editing and jiggery pokery through their own fact checking service.
“These documents must trigger the publishing of all the other documents that are being kept secret.”
On the issue of the Scottish Government refusing to give its equivalent documents to The Times, while the SQA gave its versions to the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie added:
“This Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request has plunged the Scottish Government’s account of its handling of the OECD report into complete disarray. Ministers now have a lot of questions to answer.
“The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, which sums up everything you need to know about what has been going on for years among those charged with overseeing and stewarding Scottish education.”
Meanwhile, the SQA’s response to the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ freedom of information request can be found here: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/98997.html. Extracts of these are below.
The online version of The Times’ story can be found here.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education’s statement to Parliament of 22 June 2021 can be found here. In announcing the replacement of the SQA, Shirley-Anne Somerville said it “will help to improve alignment and coherence in those functions, as recommended by the OECD”.
Emails between SQA Chief Executive Fiona Robertson and the Scottish Government’s National Co-ordinator for the OECD Review of CfE, dated 3 – 5 February 2021
Fiona Robertson’s comments took aim at this part of the OECD’s draft, which were acknowledged to be “one of the key themes” and “the basis for a number of wide-ranging recommendations including organisational reform”:
This compares to the final version of the OECD report, which retained the line, while adding reference to the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee’s contribution:
Extracts from the SQA’s annotated copy of the OECD report
Extracts from ‘SQA Fact Check of OECD Report’, dated 9 February 2021
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The SQA accused the OECD of “limited evidence and analysis”, including again that there is “no evidence to support this statement” on the impact the lack of alignment is having:
