Scotland’s children’s commissioner is calling for no student to be “penalised for making an appeal” over grades this year, arguing that “the threat of being downgraded” could impact on young people’s mental health, as well as put them off appealing in the first place.

In non-Covid times, when schools make appeals on behalf of their students, they run the risk - albeit a small one - that instead of the result improving or staying the same, the grade is actually deemed too generous and reduced.  

This year, the children’s commissioner, Bruce Adamson, is arguing that this “potential jeopardy is a barrier to appeal” and also risks “increasing anxiety and stress” for students.

Background: The SQA appeals consultation

Union response: Pushback against pressure on schools to handle appeals

Headteacher response: Secondary schools ‘completely reject’ school-based appeals

Related: Petition calls for the SQA to end ‘exams in all but name’

The office of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS) says: “We cannot envisage any circumstances where a child or young person should be penalised for making an appeal. The outcome must be either the appeal is upheld and a new grade awarded, or it is refused and the original provisional grade stands.”

SQA results 2021: Concerns about appeals

The commissioner’s office made its comments in its response to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) consultation on how the appeals process should be managed this year. The consultation closed on Friday 26 March.

In its submission, the CYPCS also takes issue with the statement in the consultation that this year “all awarding decisions…will be solely based on demonstrated attainment”.

The CYPCS says this “is potentially discriminatory” and “not human rights compliant” when many young people will have experienced huge disruption this year due to the coronavirus pandemic - including being disproportionately affected by school closures, as well as suffering from poor mental health, bereavement and illness.

It says the appeals process must take account of “all extenuating and personal circumstances”, and that the best way to guard against a deluge of appeals from students is to ensure that young people understand “why they have been awarded specific grades” and are “fully involved in the decision-making processes”.

However, the submission says that young people are “still not clear what work is likely to be counted as evidence towards their provisional grade”, and “that practice varies widely across the country”.  

The submission says: “We are concerned that we continue to hear that young people, their parents and, in some cases, their teachers are not clear whether specific pieces of work will be used as evidence of attainment and what weight they will be given.”

The model for appeals this year favoured by the CYPCS is model three, which places the onus on the SQA for dealing with appeals - as opposed to schools. This approach would involve appeals being directed to the SQA, with the school or college first holding a “clarification conversation” with the learner.

Both School Leaders Scotland (SLS) and the EIS teaching union have already said they favour this model and have rejected the idea of schools running appeals.  

Last year students had no direct right of appeal and could only challenge their results with the backing of their school - something that the children’s commissioner said was a breach of their human rights.

This year - not least because of the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law - it is expected that students will be able to mount an appeal independently if they are unhappy with their grades.

An SQA spokesman said that no decisions had been taken regarding how the appeals process will work this year. 

He added: “The SQA consultation on the 2021 National Qualifications Appeals process sought views on a range of draft proposals, hearing from teachers, lecturers, parents, carers, learners and other stakeholders, to inform final proposals. The consultation recently closed and we will work with partners to agree and publish the final appeals process in early May.”