The Scottish Qualifications Authority is now facing a huge number of appeals from students which academic scores have been unfairly downgraded.
An intervention by the Scottish Qualifications Authority
This year was supposed to be a record-setting moment for students across Scotland, as it should have marked as the year with the highest passing rate percentage ever. However, the Scottish Qualifications Authority intervened and downgraded the grades of more than 120,000 in total.
According to the Lead Examination Officer, Fiona Robertson, without the intervention of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), it should have been a record high passing rate in Scotland.
The SQA accuses teachers of being optimistic in giving estimated grades to students. But teachers defended their decision and based their assessment on the student’s performance pre-COVID.
The intervention made by the SQA was too controversial, seeing students with a decent number of A’s being downgraded to C or D and those from B to C down to a D or worse a failing rank.
Many Scottish students took on to social media how disappointing, disgusting, and demoralizing the actions made by SQA are.
Miscalculations on the downgrade
Scotland’s Education Secretary John Swinney believes that teachers did their job professionally and without bias. He urges students to go into a process of appealing if they believe they should have gotten better grades as what SQA actually gave them.
A rise in passing rate is something we should be proud of and not something to make an issue out of.
According to Swinney, it is possible that the education system has really improved over time and here we are seeing its results. We must put our trust in our teachers as they are the ones who handled these students and had an actual assessment of their performance.
Obtaining high assessment scores is essential for students to proceed with their higher education. It should have been an opportunity for students from poor communities to pursue their college dream, yet SQA seems to have shut it on them once again.
The official examination body will offer exam retakes for students who wish to appeal their downgraded grades. As much as it is a developing story, it will be a totally different outcome and an added burden for students to review again to make sure to duplicate the same results.
