By Student joy after exam results to be reinstated
Tens of thousands of school pupils are to have their exam results upgraded after the Scottish government agreed to accept teacher estimates of scores.
Scotland’s education secretary John Swinney made the announcement in an emergency statement this afternoon (Tuesday).
This follows huge controversy after the Scottish Qualifications Authority announed it had downgraded 124,000 exam results, moderating the recommendations of school teachers in nearly a quarter of all awards.
All results that were downgraded will now be withdrawn and replaced by the original estimates.
There had been claims that the moderation system unfairly penalised pupils at schools which had historically not performed as well.
And many pupils said they had been given lower grades than they had achieved in prelim exams at the start of the year.
Mr Swinney said he was sorry for the “feeling of unfairness” caused by the downgrading, adding that it was “deeply regrettable we got this wrong”.
Mr Swinney and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had both previously argued that basing grades on teacher estimates alone would damage the credibility of this year’s results compared to previous years.
The coronavirus lockdown saw all of Scotland’s school exams cancelled for the first time ever, with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) drawing up a new system to calculate results.
This was to be based on teacher estimates for each of their individual pupils, based on their work during the school year.
But these estimates were then fed through an SQA moderation system, which downgraded the marks handed out by teachers to bring them closer in line with previous years.
Other parts of the UK are using a similar moderation system, with A-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland due out on Thursday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said “we will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected”.
