Thousands of anxious pupils acquired clean outcomes e-mail

Thousands of Scottish college pupils ready for his or her examination outcomes acquired an e-mail with a clean area the place their grades ought to have been.

Many children acquired a textual content with their outcomes, however the error affected about 7,000 pupils who signed as much as obtain their outcomes by e-mail solely.

SQA chief govt Fiona Robertson apologised following complaints from mother and father and pupils. The physique later mentioned emails had been resent and the difficulty was resolved.

It got here because the outcomes confirmed a drop within the total cross charge, which the training secretary, Jenny Gilruth, mentioned was “not good enough”.

There was additionally a rise within the attainment hole between children in probably the most and least prosperous areas.

Cameron Falconer, 16, was amongst those that acquired a clean e-mail and no textual content at about 08:00.

He needed to wait greater than an hour to get his outcomes for eight National 5 exams after watching classmates obtain theirs.

Cameron, from East Kilbride, signed up for the e-mail and textual content service as he knew he could be away from house when the outcomes have been due.

He mentioned the clean e-mail had made him really feel “nervous” and “upset”.

“When I saw it at first I thought I’d got not qualifications,” he advised BBC Scotland News.

Candidates Moira and Christopher acquired their National 5 outcomes e-mail greater than 90 minutes late.

Christopher, 16, from Aberdeen, initially didn’t get an e-mail or textual content.

“It’s been a nerve-wracking day today and as the day went on it became more and more worrying,” he mentioned.

Moira Veenboer, 15, from Edinburgh, initially acquired an e-mail nevertheless it was clean.

She mentioned: “I found out from a lot of my friends that it happened to them too. I’m a bit annoyed, but what’s done is done.”

Both acquired their outcomes shortly after 09:30 and mentioned they felt “relieved and happy”.

Dozens of oldsters and pupils voiced frustration with the SQA about clean emails and a anticipate texts.

Some pupils additionally acquired Ucas responses for college and school purposes earlier than they acquired their examination marks.

Shortly earlier than 10:00, the SQA mentioned it had resolved the technical challenge affecting those that signed as much as obtain their outcomes by e-mail solely utilizing the MySQA service.

It mentioned solely 5% of about 145,000 ready for outcomes had signed up for the email-only service.

The exams physique insisted texts had not been impacted and the “vast majority of learners who signed up to MySQA received their results as expected”.

Ms Robertson advised BBC Scotland News she was “really sorry”.

“When we realised there was a problem we took immediate action and it was resolved really quickly but I do absolutely appreciate there was some anxiety around this for learners and I send my apologies to them.”

Meanwhile, Royal Mail apologised after confirming that five students in Orkney had received their results a day early.

The SQA said it was an “remoted incident impacting one space of the nation”.

The number of pupils achieving an A, B or C grade at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher was down across the board.

The Higher A-C attainment dropped from 77.1% in 2023 to 74.9%, while the A-C attainment for National 5 exams fell from 78.8% in 2023 to 77.2%.

The biggest drop in A-C grades came from Advanced Highers, which fell from 79.8% in 2023 to 75.3%.

The SQA noted that there had been different approaches to awarding in each year since 2019 which did not allow for “significant conclusions to be drawn on modifications in training efficiency”.

The attainment gap between exam results for those in the richest and poorest parts of Scotland also increased when compared to last year and to pre-pandemic levels.

The Higher pass rate for pupils from the most affluent areas was 82%, compared to 65% for those from the poorest backgrounds.

The attainment gap at Higher level for A to C grades was 17.2 percentage points, up from 16 last year and 16.9 in 2019.

For National 5s the attainment gap is 17.2 percentage points, up from 15.6 last year and frim 17 points in 2019.

For Advanced Highers the attainment gap is at 15.5 percentage points, up from 11.5 last year and 13.2 in 2019.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth apologised to pupils who felt “undue stress” as a result of delays. She said she would raise the issue with the SQA, which is due to be broken up and replaced by a new exams body, Qualifications Scotland.

The SNP minister said this year’s results were “not good enough”.

She told BBC Scotland News she had called a meeting with directors of education, the chief examiner and the chief inspector to discuss “the need for improvement across the country”.

Ms Gilruth acknowledged the attainment gap had widened, but said the pandemic had made closing it “more challenging”.

“I am very clear that the status quo is not good enough,” she added. “There have not been the improvements we would like to see this year.”

Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr condemned the “chaotic and shambolic” exam results delays.

He added: “The widening of the attainment gap continues to shamefully let down pupils from our most deprived backgrounds.”

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour education spokesperson, said the anxiety caused to young people by delays was “unacceptable”.

These exam results don’t make great reading for the Scottish government.

Grades are down compared with last year. They’re more in line with pre-Covid figures.

The education secretary has labelled that “not good enough” – that’s robust language for the minister in command of training to make use of on outcomes day.

But it is the attainment hole figures that shall be significantly uncomfortable.

Simply put, these from wealthier backgrounds are statistically extra prone to get higher outcomes.

Scottish ministers have mentioned they’re decided to considerably remove this hole by 2026. But at this time’s figures present the hole has grown throughout all ranges of exams.

More than that, the numbers are worse than they have been earlier than the pandemic.

The SQA cautions towards evaluating years as a consequence of variations in how grades are awarded. But it is exhausting to see how else we will choose progress on this space.

On a key check for the Scottish authorities the figures are heading within the mistaken route. And we will count on opposition events to spend so much of airtime at this time specializing in this challenge.