A teacher who helped set the Higher English exam is alleged to have told students what to expect and sparked the need for a replacement paper, it has been reported.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) sent the new paper to schools and exam centres a week before the exam earlier this month, amid fears the original had been leaked.
Read more: Higher exam paper changed following concerns of questions leak
The exams agency is now carrying out an investigation, which the BBC alleges centres on a teacher involved in setting the initial paper and who may have given pupils too much information about it.
Read more: Exam chiefs change Higher English paper after 'leak' fears
Its report alleges the teacher gave students possible topics and answers for the exam, sparking concerns the pupils could have an unfair advantage or could spread the details to others.
A spokesman for the SQA said: "We are continuing to conduct a detailed review of the circumstances around this year's Higher English examination and it would be inappropriate to comment further until that process has been completed."
Read more: Pupils sign protest petition over Higher English exam
At the time of the incident, the agency blamed the problem on an "isolated and external factor".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel