Reverse this exam results disaster

JUDITH TONNER

Alex Neil is calling for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to “reverse all the downgrades” of the results moderation process and will quiz its chief executive at a Holyrood session today to find out “what went so catastrophically wrong”.

The Airdrie & Shotts MSP last week wrote to education secretary John Swinney to ask for a review of the grades issued to his constituents after being deluged with complaints from pupils and parents.

Mr Swinney was setting out how the grading controversy is to be resolved in a Scottish Parliament statement yesterday as the Advertiser went to press, saying: “I have heard the anger of students who feel their hard work has been taken away from them and I am determined to address it.”

A quarter of all grades across Scotland were reduced after teacher estimates for each exam candidate were then adjusted to maintain consistency with previous pass rates, with Mr Neil calling the SQA system “a fiasco”.

Figures indicate that the Higher pass rate for the most deprived areas was reduced by 15.2 per cent, compared to 6.9 per cent for the country’s most affluent areas – and North Lanarkshire Council’s administration says 46 per cent of its Higher candidates were adversely impacted.

Mr Neil told the Advertiser: “In all exam categories, youngsters living in the 20 per cent most deprived areas were nearly twoand-a-half times more likely to have their results downgraded than those in the more affluent areas.

“Th i s is completely unacceptable. No nation can afford to threaten the life chances of its young people and expect to prosper.

“Clearly the SQA’s grading system has been unfair and flawed – in particular, it is biased against schools in deprived neighbourhoods.

“It has failed the three key tests of fairness, integrity and safety. An outstanding pupil in a poorerattaining school [is more likely to] have had [their] result dragged down.

“One of the factors which appeared to influence the extent to which teachers’ recommendations for individual pupils were downgraded was to ensure that the overall increase in pass rates didn’t undermine the credibility of the system.

“There is little doubt that the scale and flawed rationale of the SQA’s downgrading exercise has done far more damage to [that] credibility than an inflated increase in the annual pass rate would have done.”

Mr Neil and his colleagues on the Scottish Parliament’s education committee will hear tomorrow from SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson; and the Airdrie MSP said: “I will be urging her to rectify the mistakes made by the inadequate and unfair grading system the SQA devised.

“There are many questions to answer, including why was the grading system biased against schools in deprived n e i g h b o u r h o o d s, t hu s undermining the Scottish

No nation can afford to threaten the life chances of its young people and expect