I WON’T SACK SWINNEY

Sturgeon insists she still has ‘full confidence’ in hapless minister

NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday repeatedly rejected calls to sack John Swinney, despite admitting mistakes were made over the exams fiasco.

The First Minister said her government did not make ‘the right judgment’ in its initial approach, which saw more than 120,000 grades being lowered based on the past performance of their school.

She insisted that ‘we are big enough to say that we got it wrong’ but refused to sack her embattled Education Secretary.

Ruth Davidson, on her return to First Minister’s Questions after being announced as the new leader of the Scottish Conservative MSP group, said it had been ‘the biggest exam fiasco in the history of devolution’.

The fiery exchanges came after Mr Swinney announced on Tuesday that 124,000 grades would be increased without appeal – reverting to the assessments made by teachers before they were marked down by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Fundamentally here, we have had to deal with an unprecedented situation. We have done that with the best of intentions, but honestly recognise that we made the wrong judgment and that we perhaps thought too much about standardisation in the system, rather than individual experience, in what is a unique year.

‘Instead of doing what I suspect some others might do and simply dig our heels in, we have acknowledged that was not the right thing to do, apologised to young people and put it right – and we’re going to make more university places available. I think that should all be welcome.’

Miss Davidson said: ‘Next week marks five years since Nicola Sturgeon announced that education would be her number one 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 have just seen the biggest exam fiasco in the history of devolution.

‘John Swinney has been the common denominator through all of this.

‘The First Minister’s loyalty to a colleague may be commendable, but her real loyalty should be to the parents and pupils of Scotland.’

‘They deserve new leadership in education and John Swinney cannot deliver that. Why won’t the First Minister not see that?’

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard pointed out that after the SQA shambles in 2000, when students did not receive results on time, Miss Sturgeon said of then education minister Sam Galbraith: ‘I want Sam Galbraith out of office, not off the hook.’ Mr Leonard asked: ‘Why then, First Minister, do you want John Swinney off the hook, rather than out of office?’

Miss Sturgeon appeared to suggest the original decision to back the moderation system used by the SQA was her own.

She said: ‘One of the things John Swinney announced yesterday is a review of this, independently, to look at the lessons that should be learned, and I think that that is the right thing to do.

‘I made a judgment that says we are in difficult circumstances, we didn’t get this right and I accept that and I do think it is important to be absolutely open about that. We did not get this right.’ Asked later if Miss Sturgeon still had full confidence in Mr Swinney, a spokesman for the First Minister said: ‘Yes. Part of the problem for Ruth Davidson and others at FMQs was that the

‘Her loyalty should be to parents and pupils’

line of attack came today that the Government and ministers were not accepting responsibility for this… that the Government was trying to pass this off to the SQA. At no point has that been the focus.’

Meanwhile, concerns were raised of pupils missing out on university despite their grades being increased. Miss Davidson said a youngster in Prestwick, Ayrshire, had her conditional offer from Edinburgh University withdrawn.

With an estimated 3,000 more students now likely to meet the criteria for college or university places, Miss Sturgeon admitted she cannot ‘guarantee’ a place at university for every school leaver. But she said: ‘We are determined not only that those who have the grades and have had offers of places get those places but also… that young people will not be crowded out of places.

‘Discussions are ongoing to ensure that there will be additional places available.’