Huge confusion over appeals

SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE education spokeswoman Liz Smith has pressed cabinet secretary Mike Russell over the “considerable confusion” about the new appeals system highlighted in yesterday’s Courier. The Mid Scotland and Fife MSMSP, formerly a schooschool govegovernor, saidsaid: “It is vevery cleaclear that tthere remains considerable confusion about who will pay the fee to SQA in the event of an unsuccessful attempt to have marks reviewed under the new system. Will it be the local authority or will it be the individual school? Or might there be circumstances when parents have to foot the bill?

“All this matters because of the possible effects on individual school budgets and whether there might be a disincentive to lodge too many requests if these budgets were very tight.

“I do not believe it would be right to have a system where financial constraints rather than academic merit dictated whether a review was requested.

“More worryingly, The Courier revealed that three different local authorities — Fife, Perth & Kinross and Stirling — all provided different responses and that there was doubt in the minds of local authorities themselves as to what their policy would be.

“At the Education Committee in Holyrood and in the debating chamber, I raised this issue as a matter of urgency as I think parents, teachers and pupils need to have the utmost clarity about the new system. I know the Cabinet Secretary agrees this needs to be sorted and I am currently awaiting a full response from him. With the exam period getting ever closer this needs to happen as quickly as possible.

“I think everyone agrees that the current appeals system is flawed. There have been far too many appeals and the assumption has always been that marks could only move upwards. Logic tells us that that should not always be the case and so it is important that the new system has more academic integrity. ”

Liz Smith.