Given the prominence of schools in Scottish politics, the education committee (officially the Education, Children and Young People Committee) at Holyrood should, by all rights, be one of the most powerful voices in the Scottish Parliament.
In recent years, at least, that hasn’t been the case, but today might have signalled a much-needed change in approach under new convener, Douglas Ross.
Reacting with uncharacteristic urgency, the committee had summoned education secretary Jenny Gilruth and SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson to answer questions about the ongoing “fiasco” with the marking of Higher History.
This is a story that The Herald has covered in significant depth since it first broke back in August. The short version is that teachers, including markers, say the SQA changed the marking standard after the exam, but the SQA says that isn’t true, and that a report carried out by SQA officials, which only interviewed people working for the SQA, proves that the problem is actually with the students, not the exam board.
That report has, unsurprisingly, been dismissed as a “whitewash” and savaged by teachers who have also contacted The Herald and offered brutal assessments of the failures (current and historic) of the SQA.
As was pointed out during the committee session, the SQA report is not going to be the end of this matter, no matter how much Gilruth and Robertson might wish otherwise. The big question issue, though, was whether the MSPs in attendance might be able to get any closer to securing some convincing answers to the questions that are still being asked.
Nobody would have been expecting a hugely impressive performance from........