TEACHING unions welcomed a report on Scottish education today calling for a radical overhaul of the curriculum.

The Stobart Report, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), suggested scrapping exams before senior school in Scotland to enhance student learning and ease staff workloads. 

Professor Gordon Stobart, an honorary research fellow at Oxford University, said that Scottish schoolchildren faced “exam loading,” which may be limiting their learning. The Scottish government said it would consider the findings. 

He said that the current model of examining children in compulsory schooling is out of line with the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) system.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the largest teaching union north of the border, said that the report highlighted the disconnect between learning and exams. 

Assistant secretary Andrea Bradley argued that qualifications and its demands also unnecessarily contributed to the teachers’ heavy workload of teachers and constituted an outdated approach, calling for a shift towards a “more equitable” system. 

The calls came as a report by the Commission for School Reform said that the guidance on CfE placed too heavy a burden on teachers.

In June, an OECD report on the curriculum said that CfE had suffered from failures of implementation.

In a new paper examining the OECD report, the commission called on the government today to “radically simplify” how the CfE is administered.

Commission member Carole Ford, a former headteacher, said that current CfE guidance is overburdening teachers and called for the government to overhaul it. 

But a Scottish government spokesman said: “The OECD, in its independent report, has been crystal clear — Curriculum for Excellence is the right approach for Scotland and is viewed internationally as an inspiring example of curriculum practice.”