JOHN Swinney has promised that a decision on the holding of Higher and Advanced Higher exams will be made as soon as possible.

The Deputy First Minister said he saw February as his “backstop” for the exams which usually happen in May, but he wasn’t going to leave the decision until then.

National 5 exams were cancelled last month, with Swinney telling MSPs a full diet would be “too big a risk to take”. Instead, results will be awarded based on coursework and teacher judgement.

Higher and Advanced Higher exams are currently set to continue, though they’re due to start later in the year to allow “some additional learning time ... to make up for some of that lost at the end of 2019-20.”

Reports yesterday suggested a decision was imminent, but speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference organised by the EIS teachers union, Swinney said he was still taking advice from public health and education experts.

Swinney said: “I’m not going to leave it until February.

“I’ve said that’s the backstop but I appreciate that’s too late in the year for that.”

The most important issue when making the decision is the impact coronavirus has had on pupils and the inequalities it could cause, he said.

“The key issue, and we’re gathering data about this, is what’s the degree of disruption to a candidate’s learning because that’s the crucial point in whether I can be assured there can be the fair delivery of a diet to all candidates.

“If you’re in an area where one child has not had any period of self-isolation but another child has had three periods of self-isolation, there’s big equity issues around that.”

He continued: “The key consideration ... is there equity of learning for all candidates, and that will shape my judgment.”

The news comes after a recent survey by the National Parent Forum of Scotland found that more than half (50.6%) of the 4196 parents or carers asked wanted the exams cancelled.

Just over a quarter (26.6%) said they wished the assessments to go ahead, while 22.8% were undecided.

Swinney also said he said a decision on whether to end this term early, and start the next term late was still to be decided.

He told the meeting: “After the new year, obviously there’s inevitably going to be a degree of interaction in society, so probably a degree of greater circulation of the virus during Christmas. It might be advantageous to let that settle down before we bring schools back.”

Larry Flanagan from the EIS said changing the term times would help have arrangements in place to cope with any potential outbreaks: “The Government having created the space for a kind of family Christmas, I think most families will want to take advantage of that, and so we want to minimise the threat.”

He said the break would be an “important tonic” for teachers.