Students receive ‘solid set of results’ after email issues affect results day

Students across Scotland have achieved a “solid set of results”, exams bosses said, although the number passing with the top grades has fallen slightly from last year.

This year’s results showed that 77.2% of those sitting National 5 exams passed with grades A to C – with this down from 78.8% in in 2023.

For Highers, 74.9% of students passed with the top bands, down from 77.1% last year, and for Advanced Highers 75.3% of students achieved A to C grades, falling from 79.8% in 2023.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) stressed “significant caution” should be exercised when comparing results, as changes during and after the Covid pandemic mean that different approaches have been used in awarding exams every year since 2019.

However the Scottish Government said the the results showed the impact of the poverty-related attainment gap, stating results were “broadly similar” to 2019 – the last year of pre-pandemic results.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said also that the recovery from the pandemic would have “contributed to some of the variability we have seen in results this year”.

She spoke as some 145,000 students across Scotland – the highest number since 2015 – received their results on Tuesday, although problems meant some students who had signed up to be notified by email received blank results messages.

Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Liam Kerr hit out at the “chaotic and shambolic situation”, saying it was “the last thing pupils across Scotland needed on results day”.

He added: “Receiving a blank email will have only added to pupils worries about how they did in their exams.”

SQA bosses said later they had resolved the issue – with a spokesperson stressing text results were not impacted and the “vast majority of learners” had received their results as expected.

But Scottish Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “Young people across Scotland should have woken up this morning to exciting news – instead they have woken up to a new level of SQA chaos.”

She added: “It is simply unacceptable that thousands of young people have been forced to undergo real anxiety due to this SQA technical failure.

“The results speak for themselves – the poverty-related attainment gap is at its highest ever level, while attainment has also fallen for all.”

Fiona Robertson, SQA chief executive, and Scotland’s chief examining officer, said that overall “while there is some variability in the national attainment picture in 2024, this is a solid set of results for learners in National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses”.

She added that “2024 also marks a record-breaking year for vocational qualifications, as Scotland’s learners excelled in achieving valuable skills to build rewarding careers”.

“And all of this has been achieved by a group of learners who experienced significant disruption to teaching and learning during the pandemic.”

Ms Robertson insisted: “Scotland’s learners should be rightly proud of their achievements, supported by Scotland’s dedicated and hard-working teachers, lecturers, our schools and colleges, and the wider education community.”

Students were receiving grades for a wide range of qualifications including vocational awards, with a 24% increase in vocational and technical qualification awards seeing a total of 90,045 such qualifications awarded.

Ms Gilruth congratulated all students receiving results, noting they would have seen “significant disruption to learning due to the pandemic at the end of primary school and start of the secondary school journey”.

The Education Secretary added: “I’m really heartened to see a record high 90,045 vocational or technical qualifications have been awarded this year, up almost a quarter on 2023’s results.

“Young people now have a much wider range of choice than ever before, allowing them to find the route into employment or further education that is right for them, and we know that the poverty related gap has reduced by 60% since 2009 for young people leaving school and going on to a positive destination, such as work, training or further study.”

However she said: “Of course, Scotland is not unique – and like countries the world over, our education system is still in recovery from the pandemic.

“Undoubtedly, that has contributed to some of the variability we have seen in results this year, particularly with the full return to qualifications requirements for the first time since the pandemic.

“I am determined to work with our teachers, school staff and local authorities to drive further improvements in our schools.”

A helpline staffed by careers advisers from Skills Development Scotland opened at 8am on Tuesday to help advise students and parents on options following their result.

This can be contacted on 0808 100 8000 and will be open from 8am until 8pm on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and then from 9am to 5pm on Thursday and Friday.

Meanwhile, the SQA also opened its free appeals service for students who wish to challenge their grades at 9am on Tuesday.

In addition, a Scotland-wide trial will give students in some subjects access to their marked exam papers, via either their school or college.

The SQA believes the move will help learners decide whether or not to appeal their result.

The qualifications body introduced this in a limited trial in 2023, with the scheme only applying then to a small group of schools across two subject areas.

Now it has been expanded to all schools and colleges and can provide access to marked exam papers in five subject areas: geography (National 5 and Higher); graphic communication (National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher); media (National 5); music (National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher) and statistics (Advanced Higher).