§ Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the number of pupil hours lost in Scotland as a result of the present teachers' pay dispute.
§ Mr. Allan StewartWe estimate that approximately 4 million pupil hours were lost between 15 January and 14 March 1985 as a result of strike action by Scottish teachers.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the most recent arrangements he has made, in the light of the strike by certain teachers' unions, for pupils in Scotland entered for (a) the SCE examinations and (b) the CSE examinations; and what are the implications of these arrangements for pupils engaged in standard grade courses.
§ Mr. Allan StewartIn view of the instructions which were given by certain unions to Scottish teachers to disrupt procedures associated with the Scottish Certificate of Education examinations in 1985 the Scottish Examination Board put in hand a number of contingency arrangements 83W which were set out in the answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Cunninghame, North (Mr. Corrie) on 4 February, at columns 430–31. In addition, the board announced on 7 March that it would, exceptionally, extend its appeal arrangements to allow loss of teaching time before the examinations to be taken into account and to allow appeals for band A and B awards from schools which have suffered seriously from closures this session, provided that in the judgment of the head teacher the disruption was severe enough to have had a significantly adverse effect on the candidate's performance in the examination. The board's awarding standards will be maintained, however, and appeals decisions will depend on the evidence available in terms of either class work or examination script performance.
I understand that those authorities which have a policy of presenting certain candidates for the Certificate of Secondary Education examinations operated by the English examination boards are discussing the possible problems with the examination board concerned and are considering what steps might be taken to safeguard the interests of the pupils.
In addition the Scottish Education Department has written to all education authorities asking them urgently to take steps to limit the harm being done in the present dispute to the prospects of those pupils who are due to sit public examinations this year and next.
The Government is giving urgent consideration to the implications of the teachers' boycott of curriculum development for those pupils now studying standard grade courses for first certification in 1986. Our principal concern is that the arrangements should give all pupils fair opportunity for certification which recognises their achievements, whether or not they have been affected by the teachers' actions; and a further announcement will be made as soon as possible.