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I want to focus on the year ahead. We know that there has been a reduction in course content to support teachers and learners in the coming year. We have heard that more details are to be provided of what alternative scenarios might look like if there is disruption to schools—that is likely to emerge in October. I want to ask our witnesses what they think should happen—God willing, this will not arise—if there is additional disruption to schools. Should more course content be taken out? Should we revert to a revised form of the alternative certification model? What would that look like? I get that teachers, learners and parents will want to have that information as soon as possible. Ross Greer mentioned that the predecessor committee was keen to get a bit of assurance on what the contingency arrangements would look like at the earliest opportunity.

Going forward, for the individual academic year that we have just commenced—I know that larger systemic changes are planned—what would you like to see happen if, unfortunately, there was additional disruption?

I should put on record the fact that I am a former secondary school teacher and a former member of the EIS—in fact, the EIS might still be taking my subscriptions. I will need to check that.

All the witnesses have said that they agree that a moderation process is needed, and that that is important. The issue is to do with the extent of the moderation, the burden that we put on teaching professionals and the proportionality of the process. I think that everyone is wedded to the idea that moderation is important.

Mr Flanagan said in his submission that moderation provides teaching professionals with additional protections. Seamus Searson said that a teacher might think that a pupil was working beyond what evidence they had, but the opposite can also be true—a teacher might think that a young person is working at the level of a C grade but the young person might want to achieve a B. Unless teaching professionals can provide an evidence base for how they reach their professional judgments, I can see them getting into all kinds of difficulties. I would like Mr Flanagan to say more about the protections that moderation provides to teaching professionals.

In my constituency experience, I found that difficult conversations had to be had between teachers and young people when young people were informed what grade it was thought they were working towards, which might not have been the grade that they aspired to. There needs to be a lot more good-quality direct communication between teachers and pupils on such matters.

I am interested in Mr Mundell’s line of questioning—

I will be very brief. I am concerned that we were confused about the purpose of moderation—Mr Mundell mentioned what the former cabinet secretary said about second guessing. It would help to hear from the witnesses that moderation is about professional support and assistance for teachers, that it is about checks and balances that teachers also want to see within the system, and that it has been that way in relation to continuous assessment and processes within departments. Some departments have only one teacher whereas some have five or six teachers, and that may change the balance in terms of the support that is needed.

I can see that Seamus Searson wants to come in, and I am keen to hear from him. I will put my final question, and perhaps he could respond to both my questions, if that would be okay, convener.

I am interested in Mr Mundell’s line of questioning, because it gets to the heart of some of what we are talking about. We need clarity about what happened rather than snapshots of attainment. My understanding is that, in historically challenging circumstances, the attainment gap technically closed in both 2020 and 2021, compared to 2019 and previous years. Is that the understanding of our witnesses?

There is another important point. Does some of the difference between 2020 and 2021 have to do with the role of internal moderation procedures, whether those are departmental, whole school, local authority or across local authorities? I would like to better understand the moderation procedures that existed in local authorities in 2021 compared to those used in 2020.

One of the issues, of course, is that, without an exam—as unsuitable as those are for many young people—you do not have that benchmark. In 2020, we did not have that benchmark to refer to.

I am interested to know about 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019 and previous years, and I am also interested in the role of moderation in schools at a local authority level in 2021 compared to 2020, because that might flush out some of the issues.

Of course, the lockdown from January to March clearly had a massive impact. It might not be ACM that led to that differential; it might have been that January to March lockdown. I am interested to know the witnesses’ views on that, too.

There is lot of confidence in the robust processes that underpinned the alternative certification model for 2021. There will always be room to improve that model, but it is consistent across the country.

There was, however, a contradiction in some of the SQA guidance in relation to there being a reliance on exam-style evidence but there also being an encouragement for schools and departments not to have traditional exit-style exams. We heard from young people that, in some schools, they got a large exam and, if they did not meet the standard, they got a second exam and then a third exam—so they got multiple opportunities to prove that they had reached the standard. Unfortunately, the process was top heavy in the last few weeks. What guidance did your local authorities give out about what best practice looks like in relation to unavoidable assessments in those last few weeks, and is there need for greater consistency? There seems to be a bit of a patchwork experience across and within schools and local authorities.

Do you recognise that moderation is not about second guessing but rather about providing professional support and assistance to assure the professional in the classroom?

That is very helpful. Sometimes a significant increase in complaints does not mean that something untoward is going on with an elected representative. It might actually be a success in that the office is more accessible to people who want to complain, as difficult as that is for elected representatives.

I was pleased to see in the draft plan that there will be a new statement on purposes, values and strategic objectives. I suppose that it is stating the obvious to say that that is a good thing, but it does beg a question. If that statement did not exist before, what was missing and what added benefit will the new statement give?

Convener, you make a very important point about putting statistics, data or facts that change over time into the purpose of CPG. Gordon MacDonald was quite right to draw that issue to our attention and to seek permission to change the group’s purpose.

I note that the sector employs 47,000 people, has sales of £4 billion and contributes £40 million in gross value added to Scotland’s economy per annum. I am delighted to put that on the record for my colleague Gordon MacDonald, but I suppose that it is also a snapshot of time. What if a new report comes out and that data changes? If we have such data within the purpose of a CPG, should there be a reference to the nature of those figures? They could be from one year ago, two years ago or a report that was published last week—I have no idea. So, as soon as we approve the purpose—and I think that we should do so—they may be out of date.

My second point is about the procedure. If such things are put into the purpose of a CPG and the statistical data changes but the group wishes to keep that information within the purpose of the CPG—in this case, I think it is to draw the importance of the sector to the attention of Parliament quite clearly up front, and I get why they wish to do that—we could simply note the change and it could be a procedural matter rather than needing to be a formal agenda item. However, I am not sure of the process around that.

I hope that those two points are helpful.