The new SQA exam system is set to be ‘profoundly unfair' and will 'widen gap' between richest and poorest students, according to the Scottish Greens.
The plan which is being rolled out after the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools causing all exams to be cancelled.
It will see pupils earn their final grades based on their previous work throughout the year.
But the strategy is facing backlash and has been branded 'statistically flawed' by Scottish Green education spokesperson Ross Greer MSP .
It is accused of putting students at a 'disadvantage' as they could be issued a fail grade when their teacher or lecturer estimated that a pass.
The exam body’s chief executive Fiona Robertson appeared before MSPs of the Scottish Parliament’s education committee, and confirmed, contrary to claims made by Education Secretary John Swinney, that pupils’ grades could be altered up or down by SQA moderators based on previous exam results at their school.
Fiona Robertson said grades provided by teacher judgement will be moderated if a school’s results differ in “shape and distribution” from previous years.
Ross Greer MSP is now calling on the SQA to publish an equality impact assessment on the decision to use a school’s previous exam results to moderate individual pupil grades.
He also pressed the exam authority to release the precise methodology it was using to moderate grades.
Ross Greer said: “I’m now convinced that this year’s qualification system is profoundly unfair, statistically flawed and will only widen the gap between students from the richest poorest backgrounds.
“Today the SQA had the chance to reassure MSPs, teachers, pupils and parents.
"Instead they will have only heightened anxieties.
"Young people in more deprived areas in particular face being marked down, no matter how hard they have worked.
"This is a basic equalities and fairness issue.
“The SQA must be transparent about this system so that teachers and young people can have the confidence that the grades awarded will be based on attainment not a statistical average.”
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