Coronavirus: NQ learner support

The guidance in this section is currently relevant to the following SQA qualifications:

• National 2 to National 5 courses
• Highers
• Advanced Highers
• Scottish Baccalaureate Interdisciplinary Project unit
• National Certificates (NC)
• National Progression Awards (NPA)
• Skills for Work courses
• Awards

This is an unprecedented situation and as the Deputy First Minister outlined in Parliament on 19 March, the exam diet in 2020 cannot go ahead. The decision was made by The Scottish Government, using the latest medical and scientific advice.

This was considered as an alternative however, with no clear timeline for when schools and colleges would be reopened, the Deputy First Minister asked SQA to develop an alternative certification model.

Experienced teachers and lecturers will review all the evidence that is available to them to assess whether you have met the course aims. They have a strong understanding of your performance and know how you compare to other learners in each department, and in previous years. 

Your teachers and/or lecturers will take account of any available work that you have completed throughout the course. Using their professional judgement, and their knowledge of your work and your progress so far, they will make an estimate of the grade and band you would have achieved under normal circumstances.

Estimate grades will be based on your demonstrated and inferred attainment of the required skills, knowledge and understanding for each course at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher.

We will then have the information we need to adjust estimates where necessary, and to ensure consistency — both across the country and in comparison, with previous years.

We have given schools and colleges detailed guidance on how to determine and submit the required estimate information. This guidance was made available to schools and colleges on Monday 20 April 2020. We are also extending the existing estimates deadline by a month from Friday 24 April to Friday 29 May. This will give teachers and lecturers the time they need to access evidence, and have departmental and faculty discussions, to provide this information. 

No. There is no requirement for schools and colleges to set any more prelims or mock exams, or homework tasks for the purpose of determining an estimate grade. It’s also important to remember that it is not necessary for teachers and lecturers to mark any other work that would have been externally marked by SQA.

National 2, National 3 and National 4 qualifications are made up of units (including an Added Value Unit at National 4) which are internally assessed as pass or fail by the school or college, and externally quality assured by SQA. Schools and colleges will continue to send us your unit results based on either existing evidence from assessments that have already been completed, and/or by using their professional judgement of your work from through the year. The same arrangement applies to the Scottish Baccalaureate Interdisciplinary Project unit.

For National Certificates, National Progression Awards, Skills for Work courses, and other Awards, we are asking schools, colleges, employers and training providers to provide us with the results of their internal assessment decisions (where some evidence from the course already exists but further progress is not possible) using their professional judgement of your work through the year. 

Coursework for Higher and Advanced Higher courses are submitted later in the year, so as a result of the current public health advice on social distancing, you may not be able to complete it and we would not be able to receive it and mark it. While considering the required arrangements to mark National 5 coursework that we had already received, it became clear that we could no longer go ahead with marking it in a way that was safe and secure for the hundreds of markers who work with us over the course of the exam diet, or that maintains the integrity of national standards. We know this will be disappointing news. But we have taken this difficult decision to be as fair as possible to all learners, whilst responding to and following the latest public health guidance.

Everyone at SQA is working to ensure that learners expecting their results for National Courses and awards, National Certificates, National Progression Awards and Skills for Work courses, will receive their results no later than Tuesday 4 August. We strongly recommend that you sign-up to MySQA to receive your results by text and/or email. If you have already received your results through MySQA previously, you will continue to do so, and we recommend that you review your profile to make sure your contact details are up to date. A free appeals service will be available, to ensure that schools and colleges continue to have a mechanism to question any result.

Yes. SQA is in regular discussion with UCAS (the University and College Admission Service), Colleges Scotland, and Universities Scotland, who are fully aware of the situation and will help learners to progress on to the next stage of their education or employment. We are also in close discussion with Skills Development Scotland, to ensure employers and their representatives are kept aware of the decisions being made.

Everyone at SQA is doing everything possible to ensure learners’ hard work is rightly and fairly recognised. A free appeals service will be available, to ensure that schools and colleges continue to have a mechanism to question any result. 

Yes, as in any year, learners can sit the exams next year if they wish. All results will be listed on their SQA record of attainment.