Exam bosses fail the test as pupils get the wrong results

Published on Wednesday 15 October 2008 10:22

FURIOUS school pupils are demanding answers from exam bosses after it emerged a "misprint" led to them being given the wrong results.

The marks they received in August all showed that the sixth-year pupils either failed or got low marks in their maths exam – but, in fact, they passed with flying colours.

Bosses at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) have admitted the blunder and issued new certificates to the pupils at Leith Academy. They today apologised to the students for the "administrative mistakes".

But the teenagers are demanding that their marks for all subjects are now double-checked.

And Labour's shadow education secretary, Rhona Brankin, said she would be taking up the issue.

The mistake involved ten pupils at the Leith school. However, it is feared the full scale of the problem could be much wider.

The pupils sitting the Intermediate 2 maths exam in May had all expected to do well, and were shocked to discover they had been given either a "no award" or a C.

Kasha Albertson, 16, was originally given a C and has just found out she should have got an A.

She said: "I was very disappointed because I was expecting an A. We had all been getting really high marks but, when it came to the results, four people got a 'no award'.

"Our teacher was quite confused and sent away an inquiry to the SQA, who then said they would look into it.

"They said it was a misprint and sent out new certificates, but never apologised. We are all sending letters telling them to check our other results because how can you trust them any more?"

Headteacher Jack Simpson said: "Following an investigation, the SQA advised us that there had been an error in compiling the results for this group of pupils. The SQA has apologised for this and has issued revised grades direct to the pupils."

But Ms Brankin said: "Preparing for exams, sitting exams and then waiting for the results is an emotional rollercoaster for most pupils and they deserve the best possible service from the SQA.

"This mix-up must have caused distress to the pupils and parents involved and I would expect lessons to be learned. I will be tabling a question in parliament to find out exactly how widespread the problem is."

The blunder comes eight years after the major crisis in the Scottish exams system which saw 17,000 students given the wrong results.

An SQA spokesman said: "Firstly, we want to apologise to the students at Leith Academy.

"This year, we've dealt with 750,000 exam entries from 160,000 candidates, involving nearly two million exam scripts. "With such a huge volume of paperwork, there's always a risk that human error can intervene, but we have processes in place which catch these errors if they arise.

"The internal review system established that administrative mistakes had been made which led to the wrong grades being awarded to ten candidates at Leith Academy. As soon as these mistakes were identified we took steps to correct them."