Seòmar agus comataidhean

Does Bob Doris want to ask a follow-up question? It has to be brief.

Indeed, as I said earlier, we are all united in respect of caring passionately about the future of our young people, because they represent the future of our country and, indeed, our planet. These are big issues. They are highly politicised—I do not think that anybody would deny that; this is the big stuff of politics.

I thank our witnesses for appearing today. We are grateful for the time that you have given us. We have tested your stamina and you have not been found wanting. We have kept you going for two and a quarter hours—that is quite a lengthy session of cross-examination. At this point, I will bring our meeting to an end.

At next week’s meeting, on Wednesday 6 October, we will take evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on her priorities for session 6 of the Scottish Parliament.

Good morning, and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2021 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee.

We are meeting in hybrid format for our final evidence session on the alternative certification model. Joining us on behalf of the Scottish Qualifications Authority are Fiona Robertson, the chief executive; Dr Gill Stewart, the director of qualifications development; and Beth Black, director of policy, analysis and standards. Welcome to our committee.

Fiona Robertson will make a brief opening statement on behalf of the SQA, and then we will get into the questions.

Please get to the question, Oliver.

Please give a short answer to the question, so that we can move on.

That is very generous. We will take you up on that.

I would like to follow up on something. I was a bit confused by the conversation that Fiona Robertson and Willie Rennie had earlier. Has the use of historical data ever been part of the SQA’s guidance?

Fergus Ewing, do you want to come in on the OECD report?

I am mindful of the time remaining.

Before we hear from the first of our panels, I would like to thank all the young people who took the time to speak with us informally last week about their experiences of the alternative certification model. We really appreciate their taking the time to let us know their thoughts on what it was like for them, and how they think assessment could best be managed in future. They really were a credit to themselves. I hope that they found it as helpful as we did. It certainly provided us with a great deal of insight into the issues from their perspective. An anonymised summary of their views is provided in the committee’s public papers this week.

Our first panel of witnesses on the alternative certification model in 2021 are from the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland. We have with us Tony McDaid, executive director of education resources with South Lanarkshire Council, and Audrey May, head of service, children and families, with Dundee City Council. I welcome you both to the meeting. Does either of you have any initial comments that you would like to make before we get into the questions?