Sturgeon apologises for SQA bills in exam fiasco
Ni c o l a S t urg e o n has s a i d she bears responsibility for the bills racked up by Scotland’s national exam board as it drafted in private firms to help with the remarking of this year’s results.
The First Minister said her earlier apology for the downgrading fiasco covered everything the Scottish Qualifications Authority ( SQA) tried to do to meet its deadline.
T h e e x a m b o a r d s p e n t almost £ 140,000 of taxpayers’ money drafting in two private companies to help with its controversial moderation system.
Data released after a Freedom of Information request s h owed i t p a i d a t o t a l o f £ 139,290 to Alphaplus and SAS for their assistance in setting up the scheme before it was scrapped.
It resulted in 124,564 of the 511,070 grades awarded by the SQA being cut, with children from the poorest parts of the country particularly badly hit.
The controversial system sparked an immediate backlash and was scrapped entirely a week later, with Ms Stur
geon and John Swinney both apologising to the young people affected.
Following t he ministeri - al U- turn, pupils’ grades in Highers, Advanced Highers and National 5s were instead based on their teachers’ original estimates, driving up pass rates enormously.
Asked i f she t hought t he money spent on private firms was a good use of public funds, Ms Sturgeon replied: “I personally and the Deputy First Minister have ap ol ogi s e d for that. That apology would include anything that the SQA had to do that, if we’d taken a different position earlier, they wouldn’t have had to do.”