Exams for fourth year pupils could be struck off the curriculum as part of radical new plans to overhaul Scotland’s education system.
A review is set to recommend 15 and 16-year-olds will be graded on coursework as well as other areas including volunteering as part of a “Scottish diploma”.
Fifth and sixth-year students would still sit their Highers, but National four and five tests would be scrapped.
The blueprint, produced by professor Louise Hayward of the University of Glasgow, is due to be published within the next fortnight.
In a submission to the review, Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said the number of young people leaving school with few formal qualifications was a “cause of concern,” branding the current system “narrow and reductive”.