Education Secretary John Swinney says that all results that were downgraded this year "will be withdrawn"
However, candidates whose grades were bumped above teacher estimates will not have them downgraded
Following the changes, the 2020 Nat 5 pass rate stands at 88.9% (+10.7); the Higher pass rate is 89.2% (+14.4) and the Advanced Higher pass rate sits at 93.1% (+13.7)
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It comes after Boli Bolingoli admitted he played in Sunday's match against Kilmarnock despite having recently returned from Spain without quarantining
Pupils in Shetland and the Scottish Borders return to school for the first time since March
The number of positive cases rose by 52 in the last 24 hours with 27 in the Grampian area and 13 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area
In total, 165 positive cases are associated with the Aberdeen pubs cluster, but the rate of increases appears to be slowing
The trend of no new deaths from positive virus results continues
Image source, Getty Images"Due to the unique circumstances of this situation, we will this year make provision for enough places in universities and colleges to ensure that no-one is crowded out of a place they would otherwise have been awarded," Mr Swinney says.
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If moderation led to an increased grade, students will not lose that award, Mr Swinney confirms.
"To unpick them now would not in any way be fair," he says.
Image source, gettThe education secretary says the SQA will inform UCAS, the university admissions body, as soon as practical in the coming days of the new grades for students, to allow for applications to college and university to be progressed.
John Swinney says teachers will be able to provide the estimates they submitted to pupils who are returning to schools this week.
The SQA will issue fresh certificates to affected pupils.
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Education Secretary John Swinney confirms all downgraded awards will be withdrawn.
Pupils will get awards based solely on teacher judgement.
Image source, Getty ImagesMr Swinney says to those directly affected by the downgrading of the awards, the 75,000 pupils whose teacher estimates were higher than their awards: "I am sorry."
The education secretary adds an apology is not enough and says he has spoken directly to affected pupils and thanks them for the passion and clarity they brought to discussions.
He says he will now fix the problem, because that is what they want.
Mr Swinney tells the chamber: "I wanted the 2020 cohort to be able to hold their heads high and gain the qualifications and awards that they deserve after many years of hard work."
He explains that the SQA had to develop an alternative certification system at pace due to Covid.
The education secretary explains the moderation of teacher estimates was brought in to maintain standards.
This resulted in increases in the pass rates.
Mr Swinney says, for some young people, the SQA results process has made the anguish of the conronavirus pandemic worse.
The education secretary admits: "We did not get it right for all young people.
"Before I go any further, I want to apologise for that."
John Swinney gets to his feet to begin his statement on the SQA Exam Results 2020.
The education sectary will now set out how he intends to deal with concerns over the grades.
The education secretary and first minister await the end of the statement on coronavirus legislation
The delayed statement from John Swinney on this year's SQA exam grades row is imminent.
Scottish Labour, who are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the education secretary, say the grades originally drawn up by teachers should be used for pupils who were downgraded.
However, these grades, taken overall, would represent a significant improvement on previous years - including a jump of 20 percentage points in the pass rate for pupils from the most deprived areas.
This is a tricky bind for the government. It doesn't want to disappoint pupils or their parents, and it doesn't want to throw teachers under the bus - even if some might have been somewhat optimistic in the grades they had predicted.
But ministers also won't want to make a rod for their own back in future years. If the pass rate for 2020 is exceptionally high, how can the class of 2021 hope to live up to it?
The education secretary is about to give his statement on this year's controversial SQA exam results.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted her government "did not get it right" with the system used to produce grades for Scottish school pupils.
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The ministerial statement on Coronavirus legislation is overrunning slightly, John Swinney will make his statement on SQA exam results very shortly.
Image source, Getty ImagesWith Scotland's exam diet cancelled for the first time in history due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Scottish Qualifications Authority scrambled to come up with a new system to calculate results.
The plan was for grades to be based on teachers' estimates for each of their individual pupils, based on everything they had done during the school year.
Teachers were also asked to rank their students, and the results were then fed through a national "moderation" system.
This system, which had been created to address fears that the results would not be "credible", ultimately saw about 125,000 of those grades lowered.
The estimates put forward by teachers turned out to be far higher than the pass rates for previous years, and the moderation system sought to bring them back closer in line with previous terms.
Image source, PA MediaWill Mr Swinney face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood?
The education secretary will set out this afternoon how he intends to deal with concerns over the grades given to students whose exams were cancelled
John Swinney may also face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood over the issue, although that is now expected on Thursday.
The minister will get to his feet shortly at 2.50pm.
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Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political reporter
Image source, PA MediaWe'll have to wait until 14:50 to find out how John Swinney plans to fix the exams issue, but what Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday doesn't seem to leave much room for anything short of just scrapping the downgrading and going with teacher grades.
Ms Sturgeon has promised a system which would work on an individual level and would not require any students to appeal, and presumably wants to leave teachers free to deal with the minor issue of reopening schools safely - which rules out a lot of the more complex options
Also, from a rather more cynical political standpoint, the problem you create by just accepting teacher grades and thus a sky-high pass rate for 2020 doesn't really manifest until the next exam diet rolls around - *after* next year's Holyrood elections
The Scottish government will insist that this isn't political, but beyond even the Swinney confidence vote issue, this goes right to the heart of the SNP's whole project - competence. Showing that Scotland can be run as a steady ship from Edinburgh and thus making the case for self-determination.
Image source, PA MediaI'm sure the government genuinely do want to Get It Right For Every Child regardless, but the inescapable context is that education is an absolutely core devolved function, this is the stuff people base their votes on at Holyrood elections, and the FM made it her "top priority".
Today is also an example of the double-edged sword of doing things first. The Scottish government has mostly left the UK government to move first on lockdown easing and so on, and learned lessons for its own moves two weeks later.
But now they're out in front on both exam results and schools reopening.
The downside is that if something goes wrong, you're all alone in the glare of scrutiny. But there is an upside; everyone else will likely be in the same boat soon, and you get the first go at *fixing* any problems - setting precedent which other governments might be expected to follow