The 2026 exam period is now over, with papers being processed by Qualifications Scotland (previously the SQA) and students due to receive their grades in early August.

So far, the allegedly new exam board seems to have managed to avoid a major crisis, of which there have been no shortage in recent years.

This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

In 2024, examiners were accused of moving the goalposts for the marking of Higher History, causing a huge decline in the pass rate. A belated internal investigation was dismissed as a whitewash and the issue has never been resolved, not least because the exam board has also been criticised for withholding important information about the matter from the Scottish Government and a parliamentary committee.

But the biggest recent catastrophe – and arguably the most remarkable education scandal of the devolution era – undoubtedly came in 2020, when the government and the exam board attempted to use an algorithm-based moderation system that was widely criticised for disproportionately downgrading pupils from Scotland’s poorest communities.

The exam board formerly known as the SQA has, in truth, faced near-constant criticism due to its remarkable ability to find ways to look incompetent, arrogant, out of touch, and entirely unrepentant.

Fundamentally, the SQA leadership (most of which remains in place in the ‘new’ body) wanted the organisation to be a dominant, agenda-setting body in Scottish education, when what we really need is one that knows its place and is content to work quietly and competently in the........

© Herald Scotland