Highers pupils’ writing criticised by examiners

EXAMINERS have criticised the illegible handwriting exhibited by a number of pupils during this year’s Highers, recommending that schools need to do more to improve legibility.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority said its markers had found it “extremely difficult and time-consuming” to mark parts of the English exams.

The authority stated that no paper would ever be left unmarked but that schools had to “do their best to reduce this problem by making alternative arrangements for some candidates”, with the use of laptops thought to be among the options.

Education academics said the comments reflect a pattern as pupils spend less time on writing and more with computers, smartphones and tablet devices.

In addition to difficulties in marking such work, research has found many pupils are held back by such an impediment when it comes to getting their points across in essays.

Professor Steve Strand, an education lecturer at St Cross College, Oxford, told The Scotsman: “Our research a few years back found that for some pupils, particularly boys, handwriting isn’t automatic and as a result they spend some of their resources on the mechanics of composing the writing, rather than the content.

“If the difficulties are such that you have dyspraxia, there can be measures put in place to allow you to have a laptop, but there are obviously a lot of people outwith that who struggle with handwriting.”

He added: “There is a renewed focus on the rules of punctuation and grammar but it does seem that emphasis is no longer on handwriting as much, and that’s no doubt down to the changing nature of the world.”