TOT: exam results (Scotland)

[Scott]

My limited understanding is that the principal criticisms are:

1. The guidance given to SQA in the first place
2. The fact that the Education Secretary was made aware of the grades five days before they were issued, failed to recognise the potential difficulty or to take any action leaving large numbers of candidates extremely anxious over that period then only reacted once the issue became political.
3. His disingenous claim that he had no power over the (independent) SQA when he subsequently used statutory powers to change the grades for political advantage.

Call me old fashioned, but my view is (in UK terminology) where there is a major failure in a Department the Minister in charge should consider his/her position.

[Another John]

You're old-fashioned!

I'm sure he will, or has. Just like Dominic Cummings did: he considered it, and considered that no blame could be attached to him, because, in _his_ view, he did nothing wrong. (cf. Jenrick, et al.)

Personally, I think the last Minister to resign (because of a c*ck-up, as opposed to personal wrongdoing) was Lord Carrington, in 1982. How very old-fashioned of him :-|

Another new principle of the politicians, and indeed, by their example, of almost any "modern" walk of life is: "I know that some may consider this morally wrong, but the real question is: is there a law against it [yet]?"

John

[Scott]

Possibly David Cameron ?

[tim...]

what's wrong

mark estimated grades down so that the final results don't exceed last years.

I'm sure that he realised that students were going to get anxious about not getting their grades

but that happens every year and the reason is because they didn't deserve what they expected

Only this year they can have a moan about it being the system that stuffed them rather than their lack of ability

There was one case that the BBC highlighted (I think it was in England). the student had got Ds in all of his previous course work and mocks. Yes the teacher predicted Bs. He was down graded to Ds

why is that a surprise?

I don't think that by sticking to his guns the SoS would have done anything wrong. His reply should have been teachers estimated grades too highly so we had to adjust downwards - Tough!

Unfortunately the politics got the better and he had to uprate everybody

now we have a year where employers are not going to accept your grade because they know that they are bogus.

tim

[Scott]

With respect, you have chosen to answer the question 'Should the grades have been changed in the way they were?' instead of the question 'What are the criticisms being made of the Education Secretary?

Of course you are entitled to post any views that you wish answering an entirely different question does not promote any kind of useful debate.

As I understand it, Swinney is being criticised for his handling of the crisis. Your logic that no criticism is due even though he did the exact opposite of what you want leaves me baffled.

[Scott]

CORRECTION (I posted too soon)

With respect, you have chosen to answer the question 'Should the grades have been changed in the way they were?' instead of the question 'What are the criticisms currently being made of the Education Secretary?'

Of course, you are entitled to post any views that you wish in this public newsgroup. However, answering an entirely different question to the post you were replying to does not promote any kind of meaningful debate.

As I understand it, Swinney is being criticised for his handling of the crisis. Your argument that no criticism is due even though it appears he did the exact opposite of what you are advocating leaves me baffled.