Exams agency says appeal charges are not affecting students

There have been concerns that the new system means some state school students are losing out

Scotland's exams agency has denied that charges for failed appeals are putting state school pupils at a disadvantage.

The SQA's chief executive Fiona Robertson told MSPs she had heard no evidence that cost was "acting as a disincentive".

Independent schools have accounted for a greater proportion of appeals since charges were introduced.

Labour's Iain Gray reiterated his concern that some students could be losing out.

Mr Gray told Holyrood's education committee that in 2017 - the last year before the system changed - appeals were made for 5.7% of pupils at independent schools and 6.8% at state schools.

In 2018, however, appeals were made for 2.4% of state school pupils and 7% of independent schools pupils.

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Ms Robertson replied: "I can only emphasise that I am happy to have conversations about this with a number of parties.

"But I can only repeat again that we are not getting feedback from local authority schools that cost is acting as a disincentive."

'Poorer performance'

Fundamental changes to the appeals system were made following changes to the qualifications themselves.

A mark cannot now be changed after the exam results are issued simply because a candidate's performance was poorer than anticipated.

In broad terms, appeals now take two forms:

• An appeal can be made beforehand if there are special circumstances that are likely to affect a candidate's performance - for example serious illness or bereavement. If this is successful, the candidate should receive the mark they deserve on results day.

• A school can ask for a paper to be remarked or for the marks to be checked if it suspects a mistake has been made. However, a charge is made if this does not lead to a change in the mark.

Data suggests that independent schools are more likely to appeal - although a greater proportion of their appeals are unsuccessful.

However, there have been worries that some state schools may be deterred from appealing because of the potential costs - with the risk that some candidates who did not get the mark they merited may have missed out.