Fife school had one in five grades lowered before Scottish Government exam u-turn

This came before the Scottish Government u-turned on its decision to moderate estimated grades given by teachers and instead restored the exam results to their original levels.

New school-by-school figures showed the system which replaced cancelled exams this spring was particularly unfair on young people in Scotland’s most deprived communities.

The system of moderating estimated grades disadvantaged pupils who attended schools with lower historical records, regardless of the individual pupil’s own history of achievement. Madras College saw 18.3 per cent of grades lowered. These grades were raised again after a fierce backlash from pupils, teachers and parents and negotiations between the Scottish Government and Scottish Green MSPs.

Mark Ruskell MSP said: “These figures reveal just how unfair this system was, just as the Scottish Greens had warned of for months.

“Pupils at Madras and across the country were treated like statistics rather than people and judged more on their postcode than their abilities. Fortunately, Green MSPs were able to negotiate a solution which saw all 124,565 grades restored and the independent inquiry we secured has now published its findings, so there is no excuse for this to happen again.

“This is the power of constructive opposition with a minority government.”