SCHOOL’S finally out. Hopefully outdated exams are heading that way too.

After a tough year for everyone involved in education – pupils, parents, childcare workers, teachers and support staff – there’s huge relief that school’s finally out for summer.

They’ve all made an extraordinary effort, and for Glasgow’s 70,000 young learners, I hope this summer is an enjoyable one, with promise of better times ahead.

For those receiving their teacher assessments, and in particular those whose learning has been most interrupted, there will doubtless be some anxiety.

Having been forced to sit exams in all but name, any students who don’t get the grades they think their work deserves, face an appeals system that could see grades moved down as well as up, and with no option for exceptional personal circumstances to be taken into account.

Given the impact of the pandemic on families that is simply unacceptable.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has presided over this ‘alternative certification model’, fresh from its downgrading of 75,000 young people’s marks last year. It has repeatedly ignored warnings and presented fears as scaremongering.

Most pointedly, critics have included young people themselves. Liam Fowley MSYP, who sits on the Scottish Government’s education recovery group, has said: “The appeals system ... is simply not fit for purpose, it’s another example of young people being an afterthought.

“We’ve been tirelessly representing young people’s views and experiences for months – only for it to be ignored by the SQA. Young people have been let down.”

So it’s no huge surprise that, alongside the publication this week of a major OECD review into Scotland’s curriculum for excellence, the Scottish Government has announced plans to replace the SQA.

While it may be cold comfort for those still in the midst of this, the decision of the Scottish Government to accept all recommendations of the OECD review and take action to reform the system is very welcome.

The review has been called damning, and in many ways it is. But importantly it says the fundamentals of the curriculum are sound.

The problem lies with the dominance of the outdated exams model, the excessive contact time, and the web of policies and processes, all of which take away from actually supporting young people to learn.

The OECD will publish a further review specifically on assessment later this year. That was won by Green MSPs in the wake of last year’s grades fiasco.

Scottish Greens hope that it will signal a shift away from a reliance on high-stakes exams, towards greater use of continuous assessment

We know so much now about how people learn, and how they can best show their learning, that to persist with a century-old exams-led approach makes no sense.

Scotland and our young people in the 21st century deserve a modern, high quality education system, that develops them fully, with skills for life.

That needs actual reform, not just a rebrand. Scottish Greens have led that case, and we’re pleased that the Scottish Government finally seems up for change too.