SQA exams chief ‘regrets’ how pupils felt but is not sorry

THE head of the SQA said the body did what it was asked to by the Scottish Government this year – and insisted moderation was needed to maintain standards over time.

Chief examiner Fiona Robertson said: “The SQA delivered on the Scottish Government’s initial request.”

Ms Robertson appeared before the Scottish Parliament’s education committee the day after Education Secretary John Swinney said all the results downgraded by the SQA would be withdrawn and replaced with the initial teacher estimates.

Ms Robertson said she regretted how some people felt about the process but did not apologise.

She said: “I fully appreciate that young people felt that their achievements had been taken outwith their control.

“I absolutely get that and of course I regret how young people have felt about this process.”

She said the identity of individual schools was not know to those who applied the controversial moderation process.

She explained it was done instead on the past exam performance of the schools, without knowing their location.

Labour MSP Iain Gray asked if the SQA signed off a process knowing pupils in schools with a poorer past performance would be more heavily impacted.

SNP MSP Alex Neil said the SQA refused to listen to concerns about the methodology.

He said: “I think everybody and their granny knew that if you used the record of local schools you’d end up with the situation we ended up with, where the moderation process led to two and a half times the downgrades in the poorest areas than in the more affluent areas.”