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HUNDREDS of students gathered in Glasgow and Edinburgh today for a pupil-led protest against the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) results fiasco.
Students received worse results than they were expecting on Tuesday after the SQA downgraded results based on teachers’ predictions and mock exams.
Poorer pupils were disproportionately affected, with the pass rate of those from the most deprived areas lowered by 15.2 per cent compared with 6.9 per cent of those from the most affluent backgrounds.
More than 35,000 people have signed an online petition calling for re-evaluation of the results, which it says were based on “a classist marking scheme.”
Scottish Labour education spokesperson Iain Gray said “That pupils from more deprived areas have been penalised is a national outrage and those responsible must be held to account.”
Youth Communist League Glasgow member Emily Vaughan said: “The SQA methodology for grading students during this pandemic only exacerbates the existing attainment gap in Scottish education and unfairly penalises poorer students due to circumstances beyond their control.
“As a result, a significant number of young people came out to protest this and demand that the SQA re-evaluate their decisions.
“The demonstration was attended by speakers from a number of different organisations but was unfortunately prevented from taking on a truly class-conscious atmosphere due to its decidedly apolitical organisers and the presence of Scottish Conservative Party representatives leading to some animosity.”
Mr Swinney has denied that bright pupils from deprived areas were unfairly penalised.
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