Schools could turn away from offering pupils Advanced Higher courses unless they are allowed to delay bringing in the new qualifications, a teaching union has warned.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), told MSPs teachers are still struggling with the workload involved in implementing Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms.
Holyrood’s Education Committee questioned unions and teaching bodies after provisional figures released by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) showed almost half (45%) of pupils taking Highers this year will sit the existing exam and not the new qualification.
Schools were given the option to phase in the new Highers but all pupils are due to study for the new qualifications from the 2015/16 school year on.
EIS has called for the Scottish Government to allow schools the same option to defer the new Advanced Highers next year amid concerns they will not follow on from the old Higher exams.
The introduction of the new Higher and Advanced Higher follows the replacement of the old Standard Grade exams with National 4 and 5 qualifications last year.
Mr Flanagan said: “There is no evidence coming to us from our members that the workload pressures of last year have abated in any real sense and it’s in that context that we are concerned that the option around deferring the new Advanced Higher for a further year to articulate with any decisions that were made this year is not being presented.”
He added: “I think the consequence will be, if there is no option around that, that because of these workload pressures, because of the staffing pressures that are on in terms of school timetables, a lot of schools will just drop the Advanced Higher.
“It is already under huge pressure. To run an Advanced Higher class you’re normally looking for between 10 and 20 pupils for a viable class. So Advanced Higher has already been dropped in a whole range of subject areas.
“In Glasgow kids have to go to university on a Wednesday afternoon to sit some Advanced Highers because they can’t get viable classes in the schools.
“The danger here is not that people will push ahead with the Advanced Higher and take on board the workload pressure. I think the danger is that they will turn away from it and Advanced Higher will be marginalised in terms of being on offer in our secondary schools.”
Jane Peckham, from the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, told the committee: “It really has to be strongly emphasised that the levels of workload are unsustainable and we cannot keep asking the profession to keep delivering year on year.”
She said: “The workload will always be high, because that’s the nature of the job, but the evidence that we have at the moment is that more and more is just being piled on without the weeding out of perhaps less important things.”
Graeme Logan, strategic director for school years at Education Scotland, the public body tasked with supporting and improving education, said “all available support” is being directed towards ensuring a smooth transition between both Higher qualifications and the new Advanced Higher.
He said: “There’s a huge amount of additional support going in to look at the progression from existing or new Higher to Advanced Higher. That’s where all the energy and all the support is going to look at how the content progresses and compares.
“That is where there’s a really clear focus to make sure that young people aren’t disadvantaged.”
SQA chief executive Dr Janet Brown said lessons had been learnt from the introduction of the new National exams last year.
She said: “This year is more manageable. I think the work pressure is still a challenge but I think people know what they’re doing, including us.”