Details of the appeals process brought about by the cancellation of exams have been published by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Some concerns have already been expressed about the volume of work they will create for teachers, after they were published late on Friday.

In a message coinciding with the publication of the new advice, SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson said: “Learners are at the heart of what we do, and we remain committed to delivering their 2020 results, in as fair a way as possible, allowing them to hold their heads high and progress to further learning or work.”

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Last night, after the publication of the new advice, one teacher tweeted: “Goodness, apart from anything else, the amount of work involved in any appeals process for individual teachers and centres is going to be phenomenal.”

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Another teacher tweeted: “The difficulty is we don’t really know anywhere near enough about what the SQA is about to do with all the estimates to know whether there will be a lot of appeals or not. They could all get what we estimated, or there could be whole sets who get a lower grade.”

Key points in the new advice on the free appeals process include:

• Schools and colleges will be able to request one of two types of “post-certification review”: a “priority review” (for students with a conditional university or college offer) or a  “review”.
• The process will start when students receive their results on Tuesday 4 August, with a deadline of Friday 14 August for requests of priority reviews and Friday 21 August for requests of reviews.
• Evidence for priority reviews must be ready to be collected by 20 August. The evidence for reviews must be ready by 27 August, although a second date may be arranged, depending on the number of requests.
• Outcomes of priority reviews will be provided by the SQA on Friday 4 September, but the date for outcomes of reviews is not known, as it will depend on the volume of requests received.
• Requests must be submitted by schools or colleges. Requests from students or their parents or carers will not be accepted.
• The SQA will “consider a wide range of alternative evidence”, with schools and colleges encouraged to provide this “and not solely a class test or prelim wherever possible”.
• All alternative evidence must have been generated before 29 May.

For more information on appeals, go to www.sqa.org.uk/liaisonteam, phone 0345 279 1000 (open 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 3.30pm on Fridays) or email enquiries@sqa.org.uk

In May, the SQA said it would not publish the full details of its process for moderating teacher estimates - which are to form the core of the qualifications awarded to students this year - until results day on 4 August, despite concerns that this could negatively impact on disadvantaged pupils.  

Green MSP and education spokesman Ross Greer has described the moderation process as “a recipe for disaster”.