Greens welcomes fairer exam appeals procedure
Scottish Greens have welcomed changes to this year’s SQA exams, including a provision allowing pupils to appeal their result on the basis of ‘exceptional circumstances’ such as covid-related absence, and a ‘no-detriment’ policy which will remove the risk of a grade being lowered on appeal.
Green MSPs have lobbied strongly for both the exceptional circumstances provision and no-detriment policy for all appeals since the pandemic began in spring 2020.
Commenting, Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer said:
“These changes are most welcome and reflect key Green asks over the last two years. The disastrous alternative processes the SQA adopted in 2020 and 2021, particularly the algorithm which awarded grades on the basis of postcode, have fortunately now been dropped.
"There was never going to be a perfect solution for this year’s qualifications, but this strengthened appeals process combined with advance notice of exam content, additional study support and grade boundaries which take the pandemic’s disruption into account certainly make for a far fairer system than would otherwise have been the case.”