Giancarlo Rinaldi
South Scotland reporter, BBC news website

Image source, Google

All pupils have been returing to classrooms across Dumfries and Galloway with enhanced cleaning regimes in place at schools across the area.

The chairman of the region's education committee, Jeff Leaver, says every effort is being made to ensure a safe and smooth transition back to school life, but accepts there will still be nerves.

"There's bound to be a certain amount of apprehension but as a council we have done all we can to make sure that the schools are as safe as possible for youngsters and also for our staff," he said.

"I think an awful lot of youngsters will be absolutely desperate to get back to school, get back into a routine and to get back together with their friends."

Labout MSP Iain Gray asks why the SQA signed off on a moderation system based on past perfomance with the knowledge this would impact pupils from schools with a poor record.

Fiona Robertson says she does not accept this "characterisation" of the moderation process.

She tells the committee that the moderation was based on data as it was the only evidence the SQA had in the absence of exams - though she acknowledges it was "not ideal".

Ms Robertson says that the SQA sought to ensure a process that did not bind schools and colleges "entirely" into historic perfomance and added that the outcome showed a "narrowing" of the attainment gap.

Ross Greer asks Fiona Robertson if it is true that a member of the SQA statistics team resigned during this year's exam process.

Ms Robertson replies this was the case, but that in any organisation the size of the SQA staff would be joining and leaving.

Mr Greer says he understands staff turnover is normal, but presses the SQA chief executive on whether the staff member resigned because of concerns over the exams process.

Ms Robertson answers: "I’m not privy ot the full details of that particular individual. It probably wouldn’t be appropriate to go into that in fairness to them actually."

Green MSP Ross Greer asks if it would be possible for a pupil to be awarded an A in a subject if no prior pupils at the school had achieved the grade in the last few years.

Fiona Robertson answers that yes it should have been possible under the SQA’s methodology because of “tolerances” built into the system.

She adds: “It certainly was possible to have an attainment pattern in a school that was not fully reflected in historic attainment - and that actually was a really important part of this process."

Ms Robertson says although the committee was highlighting cases where the moderation process had not quite worked, she had also received correspondence highlighting "anomalies" in some schools.

The education secretary says he was motivated by pupils' concerns rather than the prospect of losing a confidence vote.

Following yesterday's announcement, many pupils across Scotland will be itching to get their new grades confirmed.

Here's a rundown of what Education Secretary John Swinney as well as the SQA said about the next steps going forward.

• All downgraded awards will be withdrawn and reissued based solely on teacher judgement

• The results of those learners who were awarded a higher grade during the moderation process will also be maintained

• Schools will be able to confirm the estimates they provided for pupils to those that are returning to school this week and next

• There is no current advice for pupils who have already left school, it seems that they will have to get in touch with their former teachers themselves if they want to find out what estimates were provided

• The SQA said, external they will work to ensure that schools receive the new, confirmed results "as soon as possible and no later than the end of next week"

• Fresh certificates will be sent out to affected candidates in the post with these new grades

Image source, PA Media

• In his statement to parliament,, external John Swinney said the SQA will inform UCAS and other admission bodies of the new grades "as soon as is practical in the coming days" to allow for applications to college and university to be progressed

• He also said the government will make sure there are enough places in universities and colleges so that "no one is crowded out of a place they would otherwise have been awarded"

• There will still be an appeals process in place, albeit on a much smaller scale than originally anticipated. More details of this are still to be confirmed

Mr Greene asks: "Who made the decision to apply the methodology that saw the downgrading of those in our most deprived communities downgraded at a much higher rate, almost double, than our least deprived?"

Who signed off this methodology was it the SQA, the education secretary or the chief executive he asks.

The SQA director of qualifications points out the data was anonymised during this moderation process.

Dr Gill Stewart adds: "We did not know which centre or which candidate, it was all anonymised to avoid any bias."

At the end of the process the SQA did work with the Scottish government to look at the impact on the data around SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation), she says.

"The methodology was the responsibility of the SQA," adds Fiona Robertson.

Image source, bbc

Jamie Greene, the Scottish Conservatives education spokesperson, says he has heard Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney apologise over the exam results - but says he didn't here Fiona Robertson say "sorry".

Ms Robertson replies that she had sought to explain in her opening statement the approach the SQA had taken.

She says t was "difficult to see" the reaction to last week's results, but says the SQA were asked to "fulfil a role" to maintain standards across Scotland.

“I think we did our very best to deliver but I also appreciate… that young people felt that their achievements had been taken outwith their control," Ms Robertson says.

The SQA chief executive adds that she felt "regret" for how young people had felt about the process.

Most of us will remember the last recession in the UK, caused by the global financial crisis in 2008.

That recession lasted over a year - for five quarters (or five three-month chunks).

Coronavirus hasn't even been in our minds that long, but so far we've seen two quarters where the economy has shrank, massively.

In the last recession over a decade ago, GDP fell by an estimated 7.2% over the whole period. This morning, we heard GDP fell by a record 20.4% over the second quarter of 2020, compared with the first three months of the year.

The chart above makes it pretty clear how large this quarterly drop is compared to any of those during the financial crisis.

Image source, PA Media

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been commenting on this morning's figures showing the record economic slump in the UK wrought by the coronavirus and lockdown measures.

"I've said before that hard times were ahead, and today's figures confirm that hard times are here," he said.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will.

"But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity."

Giving her reaction, Labour's shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said a downturn was "inevitable after lockdown" but added: "[Boris] Johnson's jobs crisis wasn't.

"We've already got the worst excess death rate in Europe - now we're on course for the worst recession too," she said. "That's a tragedy for our country and it's happening on the PM's watch."

Reflecting on John Swinney's announcement to parliament yesterday that the SQA's moderation would not stand, Fiona Robertson said it was in the the education secretary's power to do so.

“It is the prerogative of ministers to issue directives of this kind. It is our responsibility to fully comply,” she said.

The local lockdown imposed in Aberdeen a week ago after a spike in coronavirus cases is due for review later.

Since last Wednesday, pubs and restaurants have been closed and restrictions on travel and visiting other households have been in place.

So far, 165 cases have been linked to the cluster and 875 contacts of infected people have been traced.

The first minister has said it will not last longer than necessary, but she has not ruled out an extension.

Join us at 12.20pm when Nicola Sturgeon will reveal the latest at Holyrood.

• Read more here
• Lockdown reimposed in Aberdeen
• Sturgeon 'furious' at Aberdeen FC players

Image source, bbc

Fiona Robertson says that past perfomance of a school did form part of the moderation process, but insists that any changes to results were not definied purely on that.

"Every school and college was in scope for moderation and all were treated in the same way. We did not know the name or location of the centre when it was being moderated," she said.

"Schools and colleges were not seen as postcodes at all."

Fiona Robertson says that there could have been no certification of any sort without estimates from teachers and she said these were treated with the "upmost respects"

But the SQA chief executive said there was a "clear and unequivocal case for some moderation" given that pass rates were signicantly higher than previous years.

Image source, bbc

The chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) tells the committee she is "keenly aware" of the strength of feeling over last week's results.

Fiona Robertson said the SQA's approach was based on "maintaining standards over time", as the body was directed to do in March.

She told the committee that the SQA had adopted three core principals "in good faith".

These were:

1. Fairness to all learners
2. Safe and secure certification given the public health crisis
3. Maintaining the integrity and credibility of the qualification system

The evidence session with the SQA is beginning now as Holyrood's education committee gets underway.

This after John Swinney announced thousands of school pupils are to have their exam results upgraded their teacher estimates of scores accepted.

The government U-turn follows an outcry from pupils after a moderation system saw 125,000 estimated results being downgraded.

All results that were downgraded will now be withdrawn and replaced by the original estimates.

The move affects about 75,000 pupils across Scotland.

There had been claims that the moderation system unfairly penalised pupils at schools which had historically not performed as well.

And many pupils said they had been given lower grades than they had achieved in prelim exams at the start of the year.

• Sturgeon 'sorry' over Scottish exam results

• How grades were worked out for Scottish pupils

• Read more here

Image source, SQA

MSPs wil quiz the SQA shortly on John Swinney's decision that downgraded results will be scrapped and instead will be based on initial teacher judgement.

Holyrood's education committee will take evidence from:

• SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson
• SQA director of qualifications Dr Gill Stewart

You can watch the full committee here with us on the live page.

The full agenda and papers for the meeting can be found here., external

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