SQA anticipated ‘hostile’ response to controversial exam grading – Covid inquiry

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) expected a “hostile” public response to its controversial means of grading pupils during 2020 when exams were cancelled, an inquiry has heard.On Thursday, former SQA chief executive Fiona Robertson answered questions at the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry.In 2020, the SQA, which was replaced by Qualifications Scotland, downgraded 124,564 results for exams which were cancelled due to the pandemic, though this was later overturned by John Swinney, who at the time was serving as deputy first minister as well as education secretary.The downgraded results were reverted to estimates by teachers and lecturers of affected pupils.The inquiry saw a number of SQA documents published during the pandemic, including one that acknowledged the initial response that led to the downgrades would likely cause uproar among members of the public.Junior counsel to the inquiry Mary Ellen Stewart asked Ms Robertson: “Can you shed any light on why SQA was expecting a hostile public?”Ms Robertson, who stepped down from her position in February 2025, said: “Well, first of all, I would say those are not my words, and I wouldn’t have characterised it in quite that way.“This was an operational document. However, I had made it very clear to the board, and I think in a presentation on the 25th of June [2020], that we expected outcomes to be contested.“We expected outcomes to be contested because, of course, as you know, learners were not able to demonstrate what they could do through a normal exam process and a normal assessment process, and we knew that in some cases – a minority of cases – that we were moderating results and the vast majority of those moderated results would be down rather than up on the basis of the pattern of estimates that we received.”Students were initially given the opportunity to appeal their results, which Ms Robertson says was the best remedy the SQA had to offer those who felt their grades were not reflective of their abilities.The inquiry also heard how the SQA had no contingency plans in place in the event of a pandemic.Inquiry chairman Lord Brailsford asked Ms Robertson if, by the start of 2020, school closures and exam cancellations could and should have been seen as a possibility of the virus.Protesters in George Square in Glasgow demonstrate against the SQA’s method of producing exam results after Covid (Andrew Milligan/PA)PA ArchiveMs Robertson said this was a difficult question, to which he replied: “Well, what did happen? There was a pandemic. Yes, indeed, pandemics fortunately don’t seem to come round very often, but historically they come round.”Read MoreShe replied: “Yes, indeed. But, if I may, a pandemic may or may not have resulted in school closures.“The school closures were kind of the point … there was a chain of events which led to exams being cancelled, and you know we may touch on some of those issues around the extent to which any other arrangements could have been put in place.“So, if I’d been sitting here in 2019, it would have been unthinkable, I suspect.“But, of course, on the basis of sitting here in 2026, it’s foreseeable. It’s foreseeable.“I’m sure many organisations, SQA included, and certainly myself included, as a leader of a public body, have reflected at length about whether more could have been done to plan for this eventuality.”The inquiry, before Lord Brailsford, continues.