It’s the morning after a tumultuous day before, and feelings are still raw. SQA results day is always a bit helter-skelter, but this was on a whole other level.
The cancellation of exams after the Covid-19 outbreak left the Scottish government and the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) with the unenviable task of finding, at speed, an alternative way to award many thousands of students with the results that they merited.
To see the anger and dismay coursing through the country this morning, the sense of injustice felt by so many teachers and young people, you have to conclude that they have failed.
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Many teachers have told us in recent months that they were nervous about what this day might bring, largely because of the noises - or lack of them - coming out of the SQA. A good communications strategy can paper over a lot of policy cracks, but the SQA’s plan seemed simply to keep the profession it serves at arm’s length. The chief executive didn’t do interviews, details of the approach to modifying teachers’ grade estimates were kept under wraps until yesterday, and its sporadic (and not particularly enlightening) appearances before MSPs felt like they were under duress. It was not an approach to inspire confidence.
The government, meanwhile, has spent years telling everyone that education is its top priority, that closing the “poverty-related attainment gap” is critical. Yesterday, however, ministers must have watched in horror as a Scottish education story cut through not only to the general public in Scotland, but became headline news across the UK - with the top line being various versions of “students from poorer areas hit hardest after exams cancelled”.
They may flag up other data that tells a different story, but politically that is immaterial just now - the widespread perception of the public is that this government, which vaunts its credentials on equality and inclusion, has presided over a qualifications system that is entrenching inequality.
Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney have, of course, pointed out that pass rates went up, and that sticking with all teachers’ estimates would have led to pass rates far above those in previous years. Setting aside the counter-argument that this exceptional year demands exceptional responses, those points are weakened by the bluntness, illogicality and vague methodology of the moderation process deployed by the SQA. This process did not lead to every student in Scotland receiving the grade they merited, and those in less affluent postcodes were more likely to see their grades fall.
Optics is an ugly word favoured by policy wonks and political nerds but it matters here: the optics for the Scottish government are terrible today. Education is complex and cause and effect can be hugely difficult to discern, but here was a narrative that anyone could understand: a global pandemic had wiped out this year’s exams, and those young people with the most challenges in life were more likely to suffer as a result.
The appeals process that has now started may reverse some of the damage. The problem for the Scottish government - already preparing for another potential backlash with the early return of schools next week - is that by the time those appeals are processed, its stock of goodwill in education circles may be down to dangerously low levels.
