The curriculum was meant to offer a broader education in the first three years of secondary, putting pupils under less pressure. However, since pupils now take their first exams a year later, many schools provide fewer subjects.
Written evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee, which is looking at the issue, paints a damning picture.
Mike Robinson, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, said choice was being restricted.
He explained: “It is clear children in most state schools are given as few as five and up to seven subject choices. Every independent school offers eight.”
Iain Aitken, a principal teacher of geography in Ayrshire, added: “The system is fundamentally broken. There is an urgent need to revert to a system where pupils can follow at least eight subjects in S4.”
Another teacher, Richard Booles, said pupils were being asked to choose too soon and were therefore making ill-informed decisions: “The only motivation seems to have been in cost-cutting and not to improve the standard of teaching,” he added.
Parents Mark and Sally Gunn, from the Highlands, said the new structure had “seriously damaged” the progress of the most academically able pupils. Their submission said: “The enforced reduction to just six subjects at S4 from eight or nine has been a catastrophe. Schools cannot maintain teaching numbers as a result, with a vicious circle and loss of languages in S4.”