Scottish Students to Have Exam Grades Reinstated Following Outcry

After days of student and teacher protests, the Scotland exam grades have been reinstated. 

The education secretary made the decision to reinstate about 125,000 student exam grades after public outcry over lowered marks, The Guardian reported.

For the first time in history, exams were cancelled due to the unprecedented coronavirus lockdowns, according to the BBC.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority scrambled to establish a new way to calculate exam grade results.

The new system was based on teacher appraisals of each student’s performance during the school year. However, the teachers’ estimates were set through the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s moderation system, which reduced the exam grades to make them more similar to marks from previous years. 

Scotland’s exam grades being downgraded initiated an uproar from discouraged students, according to Reuters.

After the outcry from thousands of discouraged students, the government planned to re-establish the Scotland exam grades and decided to allow the teachers’ appraisal of students’ scores to stand rather than the marks given by the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s moderation system.

Now, about 75,000 students will have new exam grade estimates. The lowered exam grades that showed previously will be removed and replaced.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority’s moderation system also caused another problem, discriminatory in nature.

Not only were Scotland exam grades lowered overall, but many students claimed they were given lower marks because they did not come from affluent neighbourhoods. 

The pass rates from students in impoverished areas were lowered by 15.2 percentage points, according to the BBC, and the wealthiest students’ pass rate was only lowered by 6.9 percentage points. 

After the exam grades were lowered, many students stated they had achieved higher grades in preliminary exams at the beginning of the school year.

Some students claimed they had been wrongly penalised if they had not done well in previous years, because new estimates went by prior years’ grades. 

Scotland First Minsiter Nicola Sturgeon has issued an apology concerning the situation, the BBC.

“Our concern, which was to make sure the grades young people got were as valid as in any other year, perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil,” Sturgeon said. “That has meant too many students feel they have lost out on grades they should have had, and that that has happened not as a result of anything they have done but a statistical model or algorithm. Despite our best intentions, I do acknowledge that we did not get this right and I am sorry for that.”

Some politicians alleged that the Scottish Qualifications Authority showed disrespect for teachers’ professional judgments by lowering students’ exam grades. Some students and others opposed to the lowered marks were left feeling defeated about the exam grades, fearing students’ futures were going to be dictated by the moderation system’s results and not their most recent academic performances. 

New certificates of Scotland’s exam grades are going to be issued, The Guardian reported, and many students are content with this decision.

One student, Olivia Biggart, told the BBC she will get the five A’s she deserves.

The moderation system results lowered her grades to two A’s and three B’s. Biggart believes this happened due to her school being in an impoverished area.

Biggart plans to apply to medical school this autumn. 

“I am over the moon because finally there is justice and I can pursue my career,” she said.

What is your opinion about how the exam grades were calculated? Let us know in the comments.

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