WILL ANYONE PAY FOR EXAM CHAOS?

SNP’s humiliating U-turn hands pupils their original grades, yet still John Swinney defies calls to quit. So...

MORE than 124,000 exam grades are to be increased following one of the biggest U-turns in the history of the Scottish parliament.

Education Secretary John Swinney bowed to pressure following an unprecedented backlash – but insisted he will not quit his job.

He also defended the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), despite an outcry over the way this year’s exam grades were handed out.

Mr Swinney completely overturned the decision to moderate teacher assessments of pupil ability to reflect the past exam performance of their school. Results will now revert to teachers’ gradings without the need for an appeal.

It is a huge relief for those who achieved results last week that were lower than they had expected – through no fault of their own.

Their exam certificates, issued last Tuesday, can now be torn up and will be replaced by updated documents.

It means that thousands more will now be eligible to take up places at colleges and universities, including some who had looked like missing out.

An urgent inquiry was launched yesterday to ensure that the same mistakes will not be made if exams have to be cancelled again in 2021.

Mr Swinney admitted there had been ‘clear anger and frustration’ among pupils and parents and accepted that they felt ‘unfairness’ was at the heart of the system.

In a statement to MSPs following a week of outrage, Mr Swinney said: ‘I can confirm to parliament today that all downgraded awards will be withdrawn.

‘Using powers available to me in the Education (Scotland) Act 1996, I am today directing the SQA to reissue those awards based solely on teacher or

lecturer judgment. Schools will be able to confirm the estimates they provided for pupils to those that are returning to school this week and next.

‘The SQA will issue fresh certificates to affected candidates as soon as possible and, importantly, will inform UCAS and other admission bodies of the new grades as soon as practical in the coming days to allow for applications to college and university to be progressed.’

The controversial awards system was put in place by the SQA on the instruction of the SNP Government after exams were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Teachers and schools were asked to submit assessments of each pupil’s performance based on coursework and prelim exams. They were also instructed to rank their students in order of ability.

The SQA then used a ‘moderation’ system which resulted in more than 124,000 grades being lowered due to the past performance of a pupil’s school.

As a result of the changes announced yesterday, the attainment of pupils will soar to a record high.

The National 5 pass rate is now 88.9 per cent – 10.7 percentage points higher than last year – while the Higher pass rate increased by 14.4 percentage points to 89.2 per cent. The Advanced Higher pass rate is now 93.1 per cent, which is 13.7 percentage points higher than last year.

It was confirmed that pupils who had around 10,000 grades increased as a result of the moderation process will not see those lowered.

Mr Swinney said: ‘There is a view that relying on teacher judgment this year alone may give young people an incomparable advantage with pupils in other years. That view has to be weighed against the massive disadvantage that Covid has given young people through the loss of schooling, social interaction, pressure on mental wellbeing and, in some cases, the heartbreak of bereavement.

‘Perhaps our approach to maintaining standards for the 2020 cohort alongside every other year – even though 2020 is so unique – did not fully understand the trauma of Covid for this year group and did not appreciate that a different approach might actually help to even things out.’

He added: ‘This year is, and must be seen as, unique. 2020 has turned our society upside down. It cannot fairly be compared to previous years and nor can it set an automatic precedent for future years, but it perhaps merits taking a different approach in relation to certification.’

Yesterday’s changes mean around 3,000 extra pupils are likely to have done enough to earn a university place.

Mr Swinney pledged he would fund extra capacity.

However, universities said only that they would try to give a place ‘wherever possible’ to those who have had their grades boosted.

Mr Swinney will face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood tomorrow over the way he has handled the situation.

Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are set to vote for him to go, but he is likely to be saved by Green MSPs, who will vote along with Nationalist MSPs to give a majority against the push.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay asked Mr Swinney if he would ‘do the honourable thing and stand down’.

The Education Secretary replied: ‘I am here to take responsibility. I have taken responsibility, I’ve listened and I’ve acted and I’ve fixed the issue.’

However, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘The Education Secretary has embraced a solution that he trashed last week. John Swinney told students that the historical performance of their school would not affect their results, but it did.

‘He was given another way but he ignored it. He was asked to publish the methodology but he refused. He had months to fix this but didn’t. John Swinney needs to understand that he is part of the problem, not the solution.’ Comment and Jamie Greene – Page 20

‘Swinney is part of the problem, not solution’