SQA examinations controversy

The introduction in Scotland of the reformed examinations system in 2000 was criticised in the press and by the government after a series of administrative and computer errors led to several thousand incorrect Higher and Intermediate certificates being sent out. The crisis took several months to resolve, and several management figures including the Chief Executive, Ron Tuck, resigned or were fired.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority announces 'teething problems' with the marking system, but promises that students will receive their results on time.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority publicly admits that pupils sitting Higher Grade examinations may not receive the correct results.

Thousands of students across Scotland receive incomplete or inaccurate exam results. Schools are left in disarray as 5% of all schools have not been sent any results at all, accurate or otherwise.

Ron Tuck, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, resigns, stating his regret and accepting responsibility for "this unfortunate episode". The Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition Scottish Executive ignores demands by the Scottish National Party for Sam Galbraith, the Education Minister, to resign.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority and Scottish Executive claim that the errors are due to the correct results being incorrectly collated, due to a serious fault in the new computer program, not exams being marked wrongly in the first place.

Bill Morton is appointed as acting Chief Executive, to replace Ron Tuck, who resigned.

Students are assured that their marks will not go down. However this leaves a problem for UCAS, who has no way of knowing if students with high grades actually earned them or not. UCAS accepted the validity of all results.

UCAS admits in a statement that many of the students whose certificates contained errors could lose out on a university place that they would have received had the results been accurate and on time.

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