SCOTLAND'S exam body has moved to defend itself after coming under fire from pupils over the leak of an exam paper.
Students took to social media yesterday to criticise the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) after it admitted an English Higher paper had been replaced amidst security concerns.
One stated on social media platform Twitter: “The SQA are officially idiots.” Another said: “So I’m thinking that the SQA should just give us all an ‘A’ to compensate for their utter hopelessness and incompetence.”
There was also criticism from Jeff Dugdale, the father of Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who tweeted: “Thank goodness the SQA is not in charge of the security of Thurs 5th’s ballot papers!”
Following the criticism the SQA decided to reveal more details of the incident appearing to point the finger at an individual school rather than a leak at the SQA itself.
A spokesman for the SQA, said the issue was an "isolated and external" factor and there did not appear to have been a failure in its own processes.
He said: "The whole examination process relies on the integrity and professional responsibility of those involved in the development and delivery of the qualifications, including those teachers, subject specialists and education professionals who work with SQA.
"Confidentiality clauses are applied to everyone who is closely associated with the production of exam papers. The security and confidentiality of our exam materials is of the utmost importance.
"We have secure processes in place for producing question papers, from initial development through to printing, delivery and storage. We do not believe this potential issue arose as a result of these systems and processes, but was an isolated and external factor."
However, a spokesman for the largest teachers union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, said the SQA should make as much information public as possible.
He said: "It is important that information relating to how the issue arose is shared with all concerned, so that similar incidents can be avoided in the future."
Last year, the SQA came under fire after admitting the Higher maths exam paper was too hard.
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