SCOTLAND’S under-pressure school kids have taken revenge on exams body the SQA – by creating a Twitter account to ridicule the new Curriculum for Excellence.
The public feed – called SQA News Not – has attracted 10,000 followers among disaffected exam candidates since it started in January this year.
Thousands of S4 pupils are about to sit the new National 4 and 5 exams. Teachers claim stress levels on them and pupils are at an all-time high as a result of having too little time to prepare.
Now subversive students are getting their own back by posting a series of satirical tweets aimed against the SQA.
One tweet from the mock feed, posted with a picture of police detaining a suspect, said: “BREAKING: Chief Executive of SQA arrested for crimes against humanity #wevebeencaught.”
Another, posted on April 4, said: “UPDATE: Everyone here at the SQA hopes you are more stressed than you ever have been and you feel like you’re failing. Exams in 25 days. #HA”
One hard-hitting tweet said: “Let’s be honest. The new curriculum is a joke. We’re just bored of making you succeed in life so we now like to get pleasure out of you failing.”
On January 15, they wrote: “This year to save money we’re letting the person sitting beside you mark your paper. Cbf with all that marking s*** again. #SQAupdates”
One of the page creators from Edinburgh, who wished not to be named, said they decided to make the account because they were angry at the SQA.
The 16-year-old said: “We just came up with it in class and knew that we could really mock the SQA in a funny way.
“Lots of people are pretty angry at them right now and we knew people would like this sort of thing.”
Exams under the new education system, which emphasises choice, creativity and cross-subject learning, are to be sat by an estimated 65,000 next month.
Last week the new system was labelled a “shambles” after it was revealed teachers were completing pupils course work themselves.
The added pressure and time constraints with the new curriculum is also allegedly having a detrimental effect on the mental health of staff and pupils.
Alan McKenzie, deputy general secretary for the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said teachers should be calling for a mental health audit.
He said: “They should be asking for an audit of their mental health. That is how serious this matter is. Something needs to be done.
“It is negatively affecting the psychiatric well-being of our members. I’ve had them in front of me saying they’re going to have to retire or leave teaching because they ‘just cannot go on like this’.”
Earlier this week education bosses hit out at the curriculum again after it was revealed pupils were being called into school during the easter holidays to complete necessary course work.
The SQA declined to comment.
