Education secretary John Swinney has tweeted this afternoon that he will “address” the controversy over SQA results on Tuesday.
Mr Swinney, who is facing a no-confidence vote in the Scottish Parliament, said he wanted to ensure that every student receives “a grade that reflects the work they have done”.
He said he will set out a series of steps to address the concerns on Tuesday, amid growing criticism over the downgrading of many students’ results.
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Following the cancellation of exams this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) applied a methodology that saw the downgrading of nearly 125,000 grades that had been estimated by teachers.
Pass rates for students in the most deprived areas were reduced by 15.2 per cent, against just 6.9 per cent for students in the most affluent areas.
Scottish Labour will this week table a motion of no confidence in Mr Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, which will be supported by the Scottish Conservatives.
Ahead of the vote, Mr Swinney said he had “heard the anger of students who feel their hard work has been taken away” and said he was “determined to address it”.
“These are unprecedented times and as we have said throughout this pandemic, we will not get everything right first time,” he said.
“Every student deserves a grade that reflects the work they have done, and that is what I want to achieve.
“I have been engaged in detailed discussions over the way forward and I know that we need to act and act quickly to give certainty to our young people.
“I will set out on Tuesday how we intend to achieve that.”
On #SQAResults I have heard the anger of students who feel their hard work has been taken away from them and I am determined to address it.
These are unprecedented times and as we have said throughout this pandemic, we will not get everything right first time.
- John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) August 9, 2020
The Scottish Greens’ education spokesman, Ross Greer, said he welcomed Mr Swinney’s “admission that the Scottish government got this badly wrong”.
Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, Iain Gray, said Mr Swinney “needs to go”, adding: “It’s taken John Swinney five days to even admit this fiasco is his responsibility. The threat of a no-confidence motion has seen him finally accept the fact that he got this badly wrong.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said first minister Nicola Sturgeon must remove Mr Swinney, saying she either “backs Scotland’s pupils or she backs an education secretary that has presided over this exams fiasco”.
The Greens and Liberal Democrats have not said if they will back the no-confidence motion.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “An admission of error is step one in resolving this major issue but the detailed solution is what matters.”
Lord McConnell, the former Labour first minister and education secretary, warning first minister Nicola Sturgeon and Mr Swinney over the exam results chaos, saying “get it fixed or go”.
Writing in The Sunday Times, former SNP minister Alex Neil said the Scottish Government “must reverse the decisions it made about examination results that saw the poorest children in many of the most deprived areas downgraded on the altar of a manufactured algorithm prepared in secret”.
