Whilst the committee will seek views directly from parent and teacher organisations, any individuals or groups who wish make their views known are encouraged to do so.

Specifically the committee is seeking written evidence on the following points, which are directly relevant to teachers, parents and pupils, and form part of the inquiry’s wider terms of reference.

Written submissions are requested which will help the inquiry process to:

• review the impact on school pupils, and on their future prospects, of the performance of the SQA in issuing qualifications certificates this year;

• identify the causes of the difficulties encountered this year, including:

- aspects of the marking process,

• problems within the administration of the SQA,
• the implementation of Higher Still

• make recommendations on how such difficulties may be avoided in future, and on how confidence in this year’s results and next year’s results can be restored.

Submissions should be received no later than Friday, 29 September. Please write to:

Ian Cowan

Assistant Clerk, Education, Culture and Sport Committee
Room 2.7, Committee Chambers
Scottish Parliament
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

Wherever possible, submissions by email are particularly appreciated (preferably in MS Word format). The address is: education.exams@scottish.parliament.uk

All submissions will be acknowledged. All submissions will be made available to members of the Committee and will be placed in the Parliament’s Information Centre for inspection. The Committee may also decide to publish in its final report any item of evidence received. Please indicate in your submission if you would prefer it not to be published.

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