Highers and Advanced Highers cancelled for 2021

Next year’s Highers and Advanced Higher exams are to be cancelled in Scottish schools, education secretary John Swinney has confirmed, this afternoon, Tuesday.

Mr Swinney said this was not primarily due to safety concerns, but rather to the disruption caused to the education system by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This decision will result in pupils having their grades assessed by the judgement of their teachers instead.

He said: “Instead we will adopt the new model that has been developed and base awards on teacher judgement of evidence of learner attainment.

“This is safe, it is fair, and it better recognises the reality of the disruption so many pupils have already had to their learning”.

According to Mr Swinney pupils had already lost “significant learning time” through the pandemic.

He also suggested that pupils from the poorest backgrounds are the most likely to have been affected.

This follows the cancellation of National 5 exams.