Letter: Appeal to reason

I WOULD like to award an A pass for breathtaking arrogance and unbelievable bad timing to the SQA which, a week after being found unable even to announce the results at the right time, has now announced plans to axe appeals to students who have failed (your report, 8 August).

Taking a very small sample of opinion - our family and a few close friends - I have found several examples of incompetent marking of Highers in the past three years, where Ds or "No Award" have been overturned in favour of C and B passes.

This demonstrates an unevenness of marking which necessitates a full appeals system, regardless of the cost. To say that the increase in appeals has created "an awful lot of work and an awful lot of expense" is surely an indictment of the incompetence of the SQA.

Mike Russell must insist that the SQA drop this idiotic proposal.

Brian Bannatyne-Scott

Murrayfield Drive

Edinburgh