'Blank' exam emails sum up Scottish Government's lack of progress on Nicola Sturgeon's attainment gap vow

SNP ministers may be wishing they could reconsider their plans to scrap the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Just as John Swinney and Jenny Gilruth would have been bracing themselves for a fresh deluge of criticism over the party's stewardship of the nation's once-proud education system, an impressive blunder by the agency dramatically diverted attention on Tuesday morning.

The issuing of "blank" exam results emails to more than 7,000 young people was an embarrassing gaffe, and far from the first by the SQA, which is one of the reasons it will only oversee one more set of exams before being succeeded by Qualifications Scotland in autumn 2025.

In some ways it was fitting, however, given a blank piece of paper could also be used to display the entire progress the Scottish Government has made in closing the poverty-related attainment gap in the past decade.

The difference in attainment at Higher between pupils from the most affluent and most deprived areas was 17.2 percentage points this year, wider than any other year since the current qualifications were launched in 2015.

In other circumstances it might be harsh to blame this failure so firmly on the party of government. After all, there are hugely complicated and long-standing cultural and economic issues at play, which go far beyond the education system.

Then there is the disruption caused to learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the plummeting school attendance rates that followed, particularly among pupils from poorer areas.

If you speak to school staff in these communities, many will also highlight the significant impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which tragically undermined progress and left pupils hungry, ill-equipped and unprepared for learning. But the problem for SNP ministers is they told Scots to judge them on their progress in closing the chasm. 

Nicola Sturgeon famously put her "neck on the line" with the pledge in 2015, and went on to describe it as a "defining mission". The latest exam results and attainment gap have also emerged as the wider performance of Scottish education has been coming under scrutiny.

Education has moved increasingly into the political spotlight in Scotland amid an alarming rise in school violence, rocketing numbers of pupils with additional support needs (ASN), coupled with long delays to structural and qualifications reform, and escalating concerns over the curriculum in the wake of the nation's worst ever scores in the OECD's Pisa tests last year. It all adds up an unsettled time for those who work in the sector, and an unnerving period for parents and pupils.

Ms Gilruth has already unveiled some measures to get schools back on track, including a revamp of Curriculum for Excellence and a Bill to replace the SQA and create a new inspectorate, with more promised in the coming weeks. 

Whether any of it will help the SNP make any inroads into narrowing the poverty-related attainment gap remains to be seen, but hopes will not be high in light of the Government's recent record.

Of course, opposition parties were quick to turn the screws on SNP ministers as this year's data emerged. But they too will have to produce some concrete proposals of their own to address the problem, if they are serious about ending the current political era at the 2026 elections for Holyrood.

After all, the SNP and its rivals will know they will not always be able to rely on the SQA, or its successor, to overshadow their own more significant shortcomings.