Examsfiasco

The Scottish Qualifications Authority exams fiasco is an insult to the professionalism and integrity of the teachers who work in schools in Scotland’s most deprived areas, and sadly straight A pupils in their schools were downgraded because the SQA did not trust the judgment of their teachers.

John Swinney lauded the SQA for delivering exam results which will stand up to scrutiny, but such crassness really establishes that he is a man totally out of his depth with the education remit.

However, what should really worry all of us who want to see all our pupils treated with fairness was his insistence that the results were in line with other years and better results would question the validity of this year’s SQA exam. Nicola Sturgeon made a similar comment.

Are they both implying that, although thousands of pupils will have the right to appeal their results, nothing much will change because these present results were as good as the SQA predicted; do they really mean that? So all the extra work that teachers will now have to undertake to gather evidence for appeals will be in vain because Mr Swinney and Ms Sturgeon believe that the pass and grade limits have been reached.

Mr Swinney must now be honest with teachers, pupils and parents and advise them

if it is worthwhile appealing grades, but I am sure many teachers will agree with me that the one person who should be significantly downgraded is the present Education Secretary and if he has any integrity, he would resign immediately.

MAUREEN HENRY Lammermuir Gardens,

Edinburgh

The exam stushie is cold kale: what matters at university is what degree one ends up with – not mere entrance qualifications.

A late cousin of mine managed university entrance in, I think, Ontario. There they abandoned entrance qualification, having found that the final degree gave no clue as to earlier school exam results.

It’s time the SNP took a telling in this matter.

TIM FLINN Garvald, East Lothian