article: All three teaching unions are now taking some form of industrial action over their concerns about the new courses. Problems highlighted include the level of bureaucracy and increased workload. These are likely to be among the topics raised at a regular meeting involving unions, education chiefs and others. The group brings together a full range of stakeholders including the Scottish government, the exams body the SQA, senior figures in education such as directors of education from local authorities, all three unions and the council umbrella body Cosla. But finding a solution which fully addresses the concerns of unions and leads to an end to industrial action will be a challenge. School qualifications have been through a three-year shake-up. Standard Grades and Intermediates were scrapped, National 4 and 5 qualifications were introduced and Highers and Advanced Highers were revamped. Although the shake-up is now complete - and this year's S4 students will be the fourth set of pupils to study for N4s and N5s - some teachers and unions have serious practical worries. Their concerns are about how the new courses are working out in practice - not the qualifications themselves or the underlying aims of the changes. One issue concerns ongoing assessments - unit assessments - in the National 5 and Higher courses. Members of the largest union - the EIS - are now taking part in a partial work-to-rule over their concerns. Teachers are not taking part in work linked to developing the new qualifications unless they are contractually obliged to. However the work-to-rule should have no direct impact on learners and the union stresses it does not cover other additional activities teachers do such as sports clubs and school trips. The EIS has argued that there is unnecessary duplication between the assessments and the exams. The union said it wanted to see an acceptable timetable for a significant reduction in unit assessments and the workload associated with them. There are also worries linked to the National 4s. In some schools and council areas, N5 candidates routinely have to complete a special unit so they still receive a N4 award if they fail their course. Some argue this is a waste of time for both the candidates and teachers unless the teacher believes there is a genuine chance of the individual candidate failing. The SSTA is likely to hold a ballot soon on taking similar action - an unofficial ballot recently suggested overwhelming support. The NASUWT has also been taking action. The qualifications agency the SQA said it had spoken extensively to a wide range of people in education including teachers, candidates and managers to gather evidence about how the new qualifications were going. This had informed discussion at the Ministerial Group on Assessment and new National Qualifications. A spokesman said this had identified that there were several factors which contributed to the workload for both teachers and students which could have had a direct impact on both the delivery of courses and assessment. One included how well prepared candidates were to start studying for them by the end of third
summary: Ongoing issues about the workload linked to the new school qualifications in Scotland are expected to be discussed later.