OFF THE HOOK
SCOTLAND’S Education Secretary held on to his job yesterday – despite a furious Holyrood backlash over the exams fiasco.
John Swinney sat alongside Nicola Sturgeon as opposition leaders demanded his resignation on the eve of a vote of no confidence.
The SNP’s leadership have already apologised to pupils across Scotland for a grades system which appeared to penalise poorer communities.
But Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) CEO Fiona Robertson sparked more political anger by refusing to say sorry for its part in the shambles.
She told Holyrood’s education committee: “Disappointment is part of results day. There were unique differences this year which magnified the sense of disappointment and I appreciate that.
“In terms of learning lessons, of course many parts of the public sector will learn from the work they have done in the last few months.”
It also emerged an SQA statistician resigned during the debacle but Robertson would not clarify why when quizzed by MSPs.
End-of-school-session exams had been cancelled for the first time in 130 years because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The SQA was then asked by Swinney to moderate estimates from teachers and prelims. But when the adjusted marks were published last week, it emerged pupils in the most deprived areas were more likely to have been marked down than their peers in better-off communities.
Swinney and Sturgeon apologised and overturned the SQA results after a pupils’ protest and political pressure.
In the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Tory MSP Ruth Davidson said Swinney should go.
The temporary leader of the Tories at Holyrood said: “Next week marks five years since Nicola Sturgeon announced that education would be her No1 priority.
“In those five years, she has pulled Scotland out of international tests, her flagship education Bill was scrapped, Named Person was struck down by the courts, poor students have been punished by a persistent attainment gap, hundreds of teacher vacancies are left unfilled and we’ve just seen the biggest exam fiasco in the history of devolution. John Swinney has been the common denominator through all of this.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard backed the call, saying Swinney is being “let off the hook rather than out of office”.
But Sturgeon said: “We have the humility, frankly, to say we got it
wrong, to apologise to young people and to put it right. I think, particularly in this time of crisis, that is what people want to see happen.”
Green MSPs are unlikely to back a vote against Swinney.
But the party’s Ross Greer said the Scottish Government should not allow the SQA to dodge blame. He said: “I’m at a loss as to why the SQA has been absolved of responsibility by the Government.
“The agency’s refusal to publish its moderation process and equalities impact assessment until after results day was a major factor in this scandal being allowed to unfold.
“An SQA statistician involved in this process resigned during it. My understanding is this was a relatively senior individual within the exams authority and that their resignation may have been motivated by concerns with the outcomes of the moderation process, outcomes we now know were disproportionately penalising of working-class young people.” Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Jamie Greene said: “Given that the First Minister and her deputy were humiliated into saying sorry, it’s gobsmacking that the SQA didn’t think to apologise to pupils or teachers for their shambolic handling of the exam grade debacle.”