Pupils given wrong Higher results in new gaffe by exam body

The Scottish Government has been urged to "get a grip" on the national exams body after 34 pupils were given the wrong Higher grades.

Teaching leaders warned that the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) may now need to tighten its procedures, after the mistake was spotted by a school.

The pupils who sat the Higher in Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies were given the wrong marks when incorrect data was entered into a computer. The affected candidates took the paper at a "number of schools" across the country.

Education Secretary Michael Russell said yesterday: "I am taking this error very seriously and appreciate the concern this must have caused to those involved.

"The SQA has confirmed to me that it responded immediately, sorted the issue on the day and apologised to all those affected. I have spoken to the SQA today and will receive further reassurances next week about the circumstances surrounding this error and how this is being addressed."

The SQA said that the papers of 3,084 candidates who sat the Higher Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies exam were reviewed after contact by a school. "As a result of that review, 34 candidates will be receiving upgrades and a personal apology from us," a spokesman said. "The review showed that there had been an admin error when marks were input to the central system. It was a human admin error, not systemic."

But EIS general secretary Ronnie Smith voiced concern that the errors were not spotted by the SQA. "It was brought to their attention by a school who seemed to think that the results didn't look right," he said.

"It fell back on a school to raise concerns and blow the whistle rather than for the SQA itself to have sufficient double-checking or whatever might be necessary to avoid what they say is a manual input error."

Mr Smith added: "It would suggest that there may be some tightening of procedures needed at their end."

Labour's shadow education secretary Ken Macintosh also hit out. "Mike Russell must intervene immediately and hold an investigation into what went wrong and ensure this is not more far-reaching," he said.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Liam McArthur called on Mr Russell to intervene in the row. "Mike Russell needs to get a grip," he said. "The Agency doesn't inspire public confidence and their errors distract from the impressive efforts of pupils and staff. The Education Secretary needs to take a lead to restore confidence."

SQA bosses insisted that nearly two million exam papers from around 160,000 candidates have been handled this year. "In an exercise of this scale human error can occur, but we have processes in place to remedy errors as has happened in this case," a spokesman added.

2000 - thousands of Scottish pupils were left with missing or inaccurate results in August following administrative problems. Chief executive Ron Tuck quit the SQA and Jack McConnell was brought in as education minister to resolve the fiasco.

2007 - A mistake in a letter sent to pupils by the SQA contributed to thousands receiving their results late.

2011 - Almost 30,000 pupils received exam results a day early after a text gaffe.