THE Education Secretary said it was his discussion with teenagers whose grades had been marked down that forced yesterday’s big exam results reversal.

In his statement to Parliament, John Swinney name-checked, a number of students, including Nicola Tait, a sixth-year pupil at Greenwood Academy – Nicola Sturgeon’s old school.

The 16-year-old received two Cs in her Highers and two Ds in National 5, but based on coursework and prelims believes her grades should have been higher.

In an open letter to Swinney, she wrote: “Young people should not have their futures limited by where they live or where they go to school as you have proved. What chance do any of us have if we are graded on where we live and not what we can do?”

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Swinney also mentioned Eve Peteranna, who lives in Benbecula, in the Western Isles. In her letter to Swinney, the 17-year-old enclosed a table of her predicted National 5 grades against those achieved, as well as both sets of grades for Higher.

She wrote: “From these results you can see that in most cases I achieved or even outperformed my predictions by up to two grades.

“Due to me outperforming many of my predictions last year, I was confident that I could achieve AAABB in my Highers this year.”

Eva said she was left “shaking” after opening her results letter on Tuesday.

She continued: “In my fifth year in high school I was even more determined to maintain my high grades to make getting into my preferred university as easy as possible for me.

“I decided to further most of my National 5 classes and pick up two crash Highers which had not been available to me at a National 5 level.

“I spent most evenings staying behind after school for extra tuition where possible to make sure I understood everything taught during that day.

“On August 4, 2020 I received the results given to me by the SQA and to say I am devastated is an understatement.

“To have my grades knocked down so significantly has not only made me have to completely reconsider my career path but has also made me lose confidence in myself."

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Another pupil named by Swinney was Lauren Steele from East Kilbride. She had been predicted to get a B in French by her teachers but was awarded a C by the SQA.

She said: “These teachers have known me since I walked into that school at 11 years old and have monitored my work and progress all year long so in my opinion are the most qualified to predict results – not strangers in an office who know my name and postcode.”

Erin Bleakley, 17, organised a protest in George Square.

She had four of her six expected results downgraded.

She said: “I crumbled, I couldn’t believe it. I was bawling, crying, I couldn’t believe that the work we’d done for the past two years went down the drain.”