Scottish government accepts proposal for teachers to estimate grades.
Scottish students protested against government when their results were downgraded from the estimates of their teachers.
By Antonnate S. Mugodi
The government then decided on upgrading the rsults of every student thus accepting the estimate scores made by teachers.
The government U-turn follows an outcry from pupils after a moderation system saw 125 000 estimated results being downgraded.
Original results will be used to replace all results that were downgraded as these will now be withdrawn.
This move affects about 75 000 pupils across Scotland and there had been claims that many pupils had their results downgraded because they were from less affluent areas.
Education Secretary John Swinney apologized for the feeling of unfairness caused by the downgrading and also said that it was deeply regrettable.
He also added that the government hoped to learn lessons for the futures.
Since examinations were cancelled in Scotland teachers gave estimates for each of their individual pupils based on their work but these estimates were then fed through an SQA moderation system which downgraded the marks handed out by the teachers.
Swinney said that he was to direct the SQA to reissue grades based solely on teacher or lecturer judgement saying fresh certificated would be issued and the university admissions body informed so applications can be processed.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon:
“Accepting teacher estimates without moderation would lead to an exceptionally high pass rate compared to previous years which would not be credible.
“A jump of twenty percentage points in the pass rate for pupils from the most deprived backgrounds could run the undermining integrity of the whole system.”
However, at her coronavirus briefing on Tuesday she said this concern was outweighed by the risk of students thinking the system was stacked against them.
Mr Swinney echoed this saying:”We were concerned that grade inflation through accepting the original estimate from teachers would run the risk of undermining the value of qualifications in 2020.
“In light of events and listening to young people, we now accept that concern, which is not without foundation, is outweighed by the concern that young people, many from working class backgrounds, may lose faith in the education system and form the view that no matter how hard you work, the system is against you.”
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