The Scottish Youth Parliament is working in partnership with The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to provide a series of monthly learner panels. The panels are an opportunity for young people to feedback directly to the SQA and have their voices heard in decisions which affect them directly. The SQA provide the learners with transparency while taking comments on board and setting actions. There are currently over 25 young people who sit on the panel who are mostly of learner age. The panel is youth-led so the panel members choose the focus topics and undertake their own consultations. Some key themes explored by the panel so far are assessments, the curriculum, equality, education recovery and reform.
Following that, the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney MSP, invited SYP to take a seat on the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group (Liam Fowley MSYP, SYP’s Vice-Chair) and an MSYP joined the SQA’s National Qualifications Group (Cameron Garret MSYP, Convener of the Education and Lifelong Learning Convener). These are both very welcome developments in ensuring that young people are listened to, and heard, on issues affecting them.
The panel recently met with Professor Ken Muir CBE to feed into the Muir consultation. The consultation is for the Scottish Government and explores education reform. Ken Muir was very keen to listen to the learners and answer any questions they had. A summary of the panel can be found by clicking here.
