Teachers discern too wide a gap between the two exams for potential candidates to move up to National 5, according to a letter by the Mathematics Advisory Group Scotland to Mr Swinney.
As a result, “hard-working candidates” who want to develop their maths skills are often excluded, the group said.
In more than a quarter of National 5 maths entries last summer, pupils gained no award, against only eight per cent for those taking English, SQA figures show.
The advisory group also cited the scrapping of internal classroom assessments – one of the measures announced by Mr Swinney in September to help cut teacher workload – as a factor. The SQA subsequently decided to integrate some elements into tougher final exams or other coursework.
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