THE rector of Queen Anne High School has questioned whether the Scottish assessment system could do better as pupils reach exam season.

The exam diet is due to begin in April, with the SQA promising to support pupils as the pandemic continues to impact learning.

Despite admitting that the high school had been "lucky so far" and had avoided experiencing "significant disruption", Ruth McFarlane said that "this is not an equitable situation across Scotland".

In the school's weekly e-bulletin to parents, she wrote: "Many young people have experienced absences due to repeated periods of self-isolation in schools within areas of high community transmission.

"Learning has also been disrupted due to staff self-isolation.

"The impact of these C-19-related absences have been further compounded with absences due to winter colds and flus."

The SQA do have a contingency plan in place to address disruption to learning; in this scenario, students would be given additional revision support, such as guidance on which topics would be included in the tests, to help maximise performance and reduce stress.

Gill Stewart, the SQA director of qualifications development, said: "If we move to Scenario 2, revision support will be issued in March for most courses, to allow as much time as possible for learning and teaching.

"The type of revision support will differ across courses, depending on the assessment approach and the modifications made at the start of the session.

"We will provide more information as soon as these are finalised."

Some changes, labelled modifications, have already been implemented to make exams more manageable, this includes removing elements or topics which may cause difficulties.

Though unlikely, the SQA have also said that in the case of exams being cancelled due to restrictions, teachers would be called upon once again to provide evidence-based provisional grades for their pupils.

If the pandemic continues to interfere, a revision to the current plan will be released in time for students to prepare.

Shelagh McLean, Fife's head of education and children's services, commented: "We are continually monitoring staff absence levels and the potential impact this could have on our schools.

"All of our schools have contingency plans in place for remote learning if needed and are preparing for exams as normal."

However, additional support for learners may not be enough to ensure that students across the country receive the grades they deserve.

Last year, analysis by Audit Scotland found that 82.7 per cent of school leavers from the least deprived areas achieved five or more SCQF L5 awards, or National 5s.

In the most deprived areas, this fell to 46.5 per cent.

In preparation for last year's exams, the SQA issued a revised assessment model after the second large-scale national lockdown.

This included a reliance on teacher and institution feedback.

Ms McFarlane commented: "The impact of inequality and poverty continues to be of huge concern.

"It could be argued that the assessment system is in part responsible for this attainment gap and radical reform is needed sooner rather than later to better meet the needs of all young people.

"The assessment system must reflect the skills needed in Scotland and beyond in 2022 and do better to ensure success for more young people disadvantaged by socio-economic factors outwith their control.

"The outcome from this year’s examinations, should they go ahead, will provide yet more evidence to further the assessment debate. Young people with strong networks of support around them, ability and opportunity who have worked hard, will do well, and young people without networks of support, ability but not opportunity, will not. Could our assessment system do better?"