Headteacher reacts as National 4 to National 5 progression rate declines
There has been a decline in the pass rate for students from National 4 to National 5 level, a new report has found.
The exclusive study from the Herald revealed that in the academic year 2022-2023, of those subjects where at least 100 pupils were progressing from N4 to N5, those studying mathematics only achieved a 29% pass rate compared to physical education with 87%.
John Robertson is headteacher at Calderhead High School in Shotts, North Lanarkshire and explained a table produced by the Scottish Government calculating the degree of difficulty for each national level.
He said: “National 4 is 33 points and a ‘C’ at National 5 is worth 64 points, so to go from N4 to N5 it is a big jump and secondly, a lot of pupils who are on that borderline, we suggest dual entry to try and get them to pass their N5 while they have the chance and that is a change in school’s presentation policies.”
Dual entry is when students are entered to sit two national qualifications in the same academic year.
However, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jenny Gilruth, has called for the double entry qualifications to end believing it to be “damaging students’ confidence” and resulting in “unnecessary additional workload”.
Mr Robertson revealed that Ms Gilruth has written to schools across the country to urge them against the initiative.
He continued: “The letter said that we should be cautious about dual entry, and it should only happen under exceptional circumstances as they should only be sitting one exam.
“However, schools want to do the best for their pupils and want them to get the best qualifications, so are quite happy to do both.”
On the difference in pass rates between maths and P.E, the headteacher highlighted that this is the first year since the Covid pandemic that full coursework and exams has returned.
He explained: “In maths everything is done on the day of the exam, but in P.E around 70% at N5 is coursework.
“Until this year, the P.E qualification has been altered where instead of two sports, pupils only had to do one, so it has perhaps been slightly easier to progress from N4 to N5 and those on the borderline probably have achieved it already.”
Mr Robertson also mentioned that when it comes to sitting maths at national level, applications of mathematics is another option.
The subject, unlike the more traditional maths, is designed to enable learners to be able to apply strategies into real-life situations, for example, finance, data, statistics and measurements.
According to the figures, of those who studied Applications, the pass rate at N5 is 37% which is 8% higher than the original maths qualification.
He said: “Those youngsters are more likely to pass and seem to be doing better at Applications, so for those who achieve N4 maths, N5 is probably not the best thing for them to do, so we suggest to them that they study that instead.
“Having said that, maybe some schools are limited in what they can offer, therefore you have to do N5 maths, but it does not have a good progression rate.”
