Nicola Sturgeon has issued an apology in response an outcry over the SQA exam results released last week.
The First Minister today confirmed that education secretary John Swinney will give a statement to the Scottish Parliament tomorrow, where he will outline Scottish Government's plans to resolve the issue.
The SQA's controversial moderation system led to more than 124,000 pupils receiving downgraded marks after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Despite best intentions, I do acknowledge we did not get this right and I’m sorry for that.”
She added: “Our concern, to make sure that the grades young people got were as valid as those they would have got in any other year, perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system - and not enough about the individual pupil.”
Ms Sturgeon pledged to fix the controversy and stated that not all pupils will be expected to go through the appeals process in order to improve their grades.
She said: "Let me be clear - we will not expect every student who has been downgraded to appeal. This situation is not the fault of the students, and so it should not be on the students to fix it. That is on us, and we will set out tomorrow how we do that."
A number of different responses followed the news, with some readers welcoming the apology and decision to rectify the issue.
Fraiser Clarence said: "I’m glad we have a government that can make mistakes, admit it then try and fix it."
Janice Stienlet added: "Well done accepting the mistake. She did not decide on how SQA would tackle this, John Swinney should take some responsibility, but how can they resolve it now?"
However, others felt the damage had already been done and the apology was not enough.
Stephen Thorpe said: "Not good enough I’m afraid. Your government has caused unnecessary stress in our children. Swinney should do the decent thing and resign."
Davie Murphy echoed this, saying, "It beggars belief that this was done with the best of intentions that makes it worse it borders on discrimination depending on your post code, this is young people’s futures at stake."
Several readers also said they would be watching carefully to see how the Scottish Government would rectify the issue.
Eileen Taylor said: "Hopefully this can be sorted with no kids missing out on places on courses they would have gotten otherwise. I have to say it worries me that even with the best of intentions our government's judgement was so flawed. As a floating voter and parent, I'll be watching how this develops very closely."
Meanwhile, others felt that it would have been preferable to grade up exam results this year in order to avoid discrimination, while others felt there needed to be widespread change to the education system.
Alan Mcmillan said: "For this year it is better to have pupils results on the high side, as you can't judge on exams they haven't had the chance to take, so if a teacher says B, it should be a B end of, not some algorithm of past achievement, the past is the past after all."
Fiona Paterson added: "Don’t judge pupils on the school they attend. There are many talented pupils attending schools at the lower end of the league tables. Time to do away with the league tables for performance as some schools cherry pick those allowed to sit exams."
