SHE is widely recognised as the most formidable politician in the country but not even the First Minister could have expected her promotion to god-like status at the hands of an opponent yesterday.
For Kezia Dugdale, Scottish Labour’s Deputy Leader, called on Nicola Sturgeon to make a “divine intervention” in the growing row over the Higher Maths exam that many pupils recently found far too difficult.
Reports from around the country of exam candidates being left in tears by the difficulty of the exam saw the First Minister pledge yesterday that no pupil will be disadvantaged if the exam is found to have been too difficult.
After some 17,000 people signed two petitions urging the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to take the difficulty level of the maths exam into account when marking, Dugdale reminded the First Minister that she had already raised the issue of what she called the “unfair and unjust” exam appeals system.
Dugdale said: “The appeals system and the new exams need sorted out. She said education is her sacred responsibility, it’s time for some divine intervention from this First Minister.”
The First Minister said: “As always the top priority of Labour members is simply to hurl abuse of the SNP: that will not be lost on anyone.
The First Minister insisted: “No young person sitting the higher maths exam will be disadvantaged if it is found out the exam is more difficult than was intended.
“How can we say that with confidence? Because the SQA has the process in place every single year to moderate results, to take account of the fact an exam might be found to be easier or harder than was intended.”
Dugdale had related the case of Hawick schoolgirl Chloe Thomson who said her dream of studying medicine at university “now seems completely out of reach due to the awful maths exam I endured”.
The First Minister said: “I have huge sympathy for anybody who sits an exam and comes out of it feeling like that.
“Surely Kezia Dugdale’s responsibility is to relay back to that young person the assurance and reassurances the SQA has given and I have outlined in this chamber.
“Instead of trying to play up those fears, surely Kezia Dugdale’s responsibility is to join us in reassuring that young person.”
Earlier Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for West Dunbartonshire, said: “Pupils have been studying hard over the past few months and practising on exam papers used in previous years, but even some of the brightest pupils did not feel properly prepared for this exam.
“Across Scotland, pupils and their parents are now worried about whether this could affect career plans and applications for college or university.
“It is, of course, important to maintain high standards but it is completely unfair to set an exam which does not reflect the course material taught in the classroom, as seems to be the case this year.
“I will be asking the Scottish Government and the SQA to take action to ensure that pupils will not suffer a disadvantage compared to previous years and that these concerns are taken into account in the marking process.”
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