Chamber and committees

Being a referee is not a Mickey Mouse vocation.

Have you met my wife, then?

Good morning, everyone. I have been on the committee on and off during all my time as an MSP and, from day one, I have heard about teaching to the test. How do we take that conversation forward? Professor Hayward said that society puts a lot of emphasis on exams and results. How do we convince the rest of the world? Mr Bain said that we need to have that conversation with parents and employers so that they value and buy into the process. Getting that buy-in is one of the challenges that we always face. We can discuss it and say that this is the way forward but, out there in the real world, people will ask what we are doing.

I have already had a text from my very academic wife, who has watched today’s proceedings, saying “Oh. Right.” That is from somebody who is involved politically. How do we take the conversation forward and get the message out to the world that there are, as you say, other ways of assessing people?

Mr Bain, you deal with one of the key groups—parents themselves. That will be the big one to convince that this is the way forward. How do you see that happening? After all, you brought up the idea of the conversation.

Thank you.

We have to ensure that they have that voice. The EIS always made it sound as if—

The evidence that we have taken—you have said this, too, cabinet secretary—is that the national bodies, and the SQA in particular, can seem too distant, and trust in the SQA has been eroded. Some witnesses have told the committee that they feel that this is just a rebranding exercise. It is almost as though this is the new improved SQA—like the Daz super-white challenge. Is there a difference between how it has worked and how it will work? How will it be better than what we currently have?

Thank you—and sorry, Jackie.

Luckily, this is the last question.

If it is possibly the last question, then I am not stealing anybody else’s.

My question is short but important. There is much talk of Gaelic in the bill, but no mention of British Sign Language. However, our predecessor committee considered legislation to give BSL equal status as a language. What are your thoughts on that?