AS Edinburgh schoolkids protested outside Holyrood today, Nicola Sturgeon had to apologise to young people in Scotland who have had their exam results unfairly downgraded.  

At her government’s coronavirus briefing, the First Minister acknowledged that “we did not get this right,” adding that it will be taking steps to ensure students get “a grade that recognises the work they have done.”

“Our concern, which was to make sure that the grades young people got were as valid as those they would have got in any other year, perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil,” she said. “That burden has not fallen equally across our society.”

The SNP leader backed her Education Secretary, John Swinney, who faces a no-confidence vote in Holyrood tomorrow.

Mr Swinney has been urged to trust in teachers’ gradings and reverse the mass downgrading of hundreds of thousands of youngsters’ assessments, disproportionately affecting those from poorer areas. 

But Scottish Labour’s Iain Gray said: “It is frankly hypocritical for the First Minister to apologise today after refusing to accept, for over a week, that an injustice had occurred.

“This apology is more concerned with protecting John Swinney’s job than facing up to the failures of her government.

“Scottish Labour and other parties warned the First Minister and John Swinney for months and were ignored.”

Mr Gray said a belated and forced apology was not good enough and called for the immediate return to the grades recommended by teachers. 

“It’s time pupils and teachers got justice and Swinney got his jotters,” he said.

At the Holyrood protest today,  the youngsters taking part said the system had unfairly penalised them. The students against classism group hopes to make the Scottish Qualifications Authority re-evaluate results in a way that is not “based on a classist marking scheme.” 

Mr Swinney is expected to make a statement to Parliament tomorrow, with opposition politicians urging him to revise the government’s approach. 

Scottish Green education spokesman Ross Greer welcomed Ms Sturgeon’s apology, calling for “an urgent solution to this unacceptable situation.”

He said: “The Education Secretary’s statement to Parliament must announce the kind of systemic solution the Greens have demanded, otherwise our confidence in this government’s ability to discharge its responsibilities in education will come into question.”