The coronavirus crisis is now so all-consuming, so woven into the fabric of every aspect of our lives, that it has made epochal events and historic decisions seem strangely routine. We have grown accustomed to hearing of dramatic changes in how education is delivered but also to a shift in how education is talked about.
There was an unusual moment when education secretary John Swinney was doing a BBC TV interview last Sunday, in which, among other issues (as both education secretary and deputy first minister, his brief is dauntingly wide), he was asked about when the vast majority of pupils for whom remote learning is the daily reality might return to schools.
That this huge, historic shift of education away from school buildings was not the first issue he was quizzed about is telling enough. Imagine the looks of disbelief if you time-travelled back to January 2020 and told people that, 12 months later, not only would most pupils be spending their school days at home but that it would be far from the first issue for the education secretary to address in an interview.
After talking about the possibility of a phased return to school, Swinney was asked about speculation that the school year might even be repeated. It was significant not only that this was mentioned but how it was framed: dropped in almost casually near the end of the 15-minute interview - the point at which, in normal times, you might expect a shift to a non-political, even frivolous, subject rather than a potentially seismic decision affecting every nursery, school, college and university in the country.
Coronavirus: Big, lasting change in education seems inevitable
Here - after a historic 10 months in which exams have been cancelled twice and school buildings have twice been declared off limits to most pupils - was yet more evidence that the once unthinkable has become routine. Whether or not the repeating of a school year is likely is, to some extent, beside the point - that it is even part of a serious conversation underlines the remarkable times we are in.
Swinney sidestepped the subject but that line of questioning will no doubt come up again if pupils do not soon start returning to face-to-face learning with their teachers.
We are in the eye of the coronavirus storm just now, which makes it hard to survey the future wreckage and determine appropriate long-term responses. What is clear, though, is that there will be some tough debates to be had whenever everything settles down to anything like normal, perhaps even a reckoning for some organisations and conventions. What of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Education Scotland and the education secretary himself, when the dust settles? What is the long-term future for exams, remote learning and teacher professional development?
On exams, ever since the cancellation of the 2020 diet last March, there has been a lot of enthusiastic talk about taking advantage of this moment of flux to fundamentally reform or even abolish end-of-year exams.
Last weekend, however, one of the most-read pieces on the 91 website came from maths teacher Chris Smith - Scotland’s 2018 Teacher of the Year - who pushed back against the idea of scrapping exams.
“Keeping one eye on the final exam while covering the course content can be helpful for maintaining sustained focus,” he said, adding: “Qualifications that rely purely on internal assessment suffer because of the value placed on them by employers, parents, students and even teachers.” And there was plenty of support for his call to avoid a “knee-jerk reaction” to scrap exams for good.
Big, lasting changes to education seem almost guaranteed in the not-too-distant future - but we should always be aware that what seems perfectly sensible in this fraught, febrile time of Covid may look very different in the aftermath.
This article originally appeared in the 29 January 2021 issue under the headline “Surreal Covid has turned how we think about education on its head”
