New chief says SQA 'shouldn't be marking our own homework'
Pass rates for Higher History students dropped by 13 percentage points in 2024 due to sharp declines in scores for one specific component – the Scottish History exam paper.
In August last year, The Herald revealed that teachers, including current exam marks, had accused the SQA of requiring more detailed answers than had previously been the case, and of failing to inform teachers about this change in advance.
We subsequently discovered that despite rejecting the concerns, the SQA had in fact launched an investigation two days after a meeting with education secretary Jenny Gilruth. However, this review was conducted by SQA staff and it later emerged that the only people interviewed during the process were those alleged to have been responsible for the crisis.
Although the exam board initially promised that the findings would be made public before the end of September, they were not in fact released until 6 November 2024 – 24 weeks after students had sat the exam itself.
The report exonerated SQA staff entirely, claiming that 'the marking standard in 2024 did not change and that the marking and grading processes worked as intended', but was dismissed as a 'disgrace' and a 'whitewash' by teachers and politicians.
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The release of 2025 exam results has confirmed that Higher History pass rates have rebounded in a single year, raising further questions about the reasons behind the extreme decline seen last year. The chair of Holyrood's education committee has raised concerns that the 2024 Higher History results 'were not sound' and confirmed his intention to raise the matter with both the SQA and Scottish Government.
Given these developments, Mr Page was asked if the issue should be revisited, and whether a willingness to retrospectively identify and resolve any mistakes might show that the SQA is genuinely changing as an organisation.
'The honest answer is yes,' he said. 'But also the answer the honest answer is how and to what purpose?'
'We had the review, it was reported to parliament, it was accepted by parliament, and then we had an action plan and we've delivered on the action plan. That's what we have done. Now, with the validity of each of those stages, teachers still have concerns about that, and a lot of our learners will as well.
'And that's where I'm troubled. That's where I'm troubled because where were the mistakes made? Were they made in our organisation or was it a compendium of results and issues and different things?'
'When we make mistakes, it's really important that we understand what we did wrong and how we're going to fix it.'
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government, which has defended the original SQA review, said:
'The Scottish Government accepted the findings and actions included in the SQA's review into Higher History in 2024.
'The SQA has worked closely with the Scottish Association of Teachers of History and the profession following the review, and has delivered a number of improvements, including extra Understanding Standards events for Higher History.'
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