I don’t recall asking questions of botched Covid exam model, says Swinney

First Minister John Swinney has said he does not remember asking questions about a botched exam model used during the pandemic.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) developed plans that scrapped exams and based grades on a mix of teacher estimates and the historic attainment of schools.

While it was pointed out ahead of time the model would result in exceptional students from poorer areas being downgraded, both the SQA and Mr Swinney – who was serving as deputy first minister and education secretary – stuck with it.

It was only after results were published, showing 125,000 results had been downgraded, that the Government U-turned and allowed teacher estimates to stand, with Mr Swinney later facing and winning a vote of no confidence.

Appearing at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Thursday, Mr Swinney – who became First Minister last year – said there was an “arms-length” approach taken to qualifications in Scotland which was not “dictated by ministers”.

Asked if such an approach included being able to ask questions about the model put forward by the SQA – which is due to be scrapped and replaced later this year with a new body – the First Minister said: “No, but I would have had dialogue with the SQA about these issues, but I can’t recall any particular discussions that we had.”

Concerns had been raised with Mr Swinney in the weeks before the announcement of results in August 2020, with former Labour MSP Johann Lamont being mentioned by inquiry counsel Clair Dobbin KC in her questioning of the First Minister.

Asked if he raised the issue following the initial backlash to the plans, the First Minister said: “I don’t recall doing that, because I was taking the view that I had essentially commissioned the SQA to undertake the design of an alternative certification model and to make sure that all of the principles that we rehearsed earlier on about fairness, about the delivery of reliable qualifications, about the reflection of attainment that the SQA would be operating to fulfil that mandate.”

The First Minister rejected Ms Dobbin’s assertion that he was a “bystander”, saying instead: “It’s respecting the fact that there is an approach taken in Scotland which was that we should have qualifications certificated by an external body and that external body should apply professional judgement to allow that to be undertaken in the interests of fairness to all learners.”

The Government ordered a rapid review of the situation after the U-turn, drafting in noted education expert Professor Mark Priestley, who described the model as “arbitrary” – something which the First Minister said the view has “justification”.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, the First Minister also said many young people had felt “their future had been determined by statistical modelling”.