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That was to do with additional evidence and not exceptional circumstances.

I found all that commentary on assessments very useful.

Earlier, Dr Pont commented on the work that the OECD has done internationally on development of other systems. It is great to hear that other countries are observing Scotland, but I want also to learn a bit from those countries. Dr Pont said that other countries have implemented new curriculums that share the same ethos as curriculum for excellence. Have those countries faced implementation issues that are similar to those that we have had in Scotland? Are there any issues that are distinct to us, in Scotland?

It is useful to hear those points. One of the most common comments that I hear from university principals and vice-principals is a real concern about the level of knowledge, capabilities and capacity in some of the people who come to university as undergraduates—in particular, in science, technology, mathematics and engineering subjects. I have heard that, for first-year students, universities are having to teach, or re-teach, things that would previously, in their understanding, have been in the school curriculum. I go back to Willie Rennie’s comments on how we can work with universities to try to understand why that is happening. Is it inevitable? The committee could perhaps discuss that at a later point.

My question relates to some of the causal factors around that issue. There is much research on it, including a report from the Education and Skills Committee in the previous session of Parliament, which noted—to get quite technical—that a key issue with senior phase implementation is timetabling in the fourth year. That issue was created predominantly by moving from standard grades, with 160 hours of teaching time over two years, to nationals, with 160 hours over one year.

From your research, how key do you think those issues are to implementation of the curriculum? It would also be useful to hear comments on what seems to me to be the resulting inevitable narrowing of choice, with regard to the senior phase and the general education experience.

I understand that it was a broad question that probably requires broader analysis of the issues.

You mentioned that in Mexico there is a lack of training to prepare teachers to engage in curriculum development. That would have been somewhat familiar to teachers in Scotland at the start of curriculum for excellence, given the great challenges in its implementation phase. Are there places that have done that better, and are there lessons that we can learn? You have given Mexico as one example in which things have not gone well because of the lack of such capacity. Are you saying that we need to lift that capacity in Scotland? What kind of capacity do we need? One of the core issues that you mentioned is in-school development time. Where are the models that we should reflect on and learn from?

On that issue, I have struggled to understand some of the process in my home city of Dundee. There has been a collapse in choice for many students. It is not clear to me whether that is being driven only by the process that we are describing or whether the fact that the council administration has cut one in eight teachers—12 per cent of all teachers—from schools has resulted in that kind of narrowing.

Can you comment, from the work that you did, on the resourcing of choice versus the structure of choice? What are the constraining factors?

I am a councillor for the Lochee ward of Dundee City Council.