An investigation has been launched after two classes of media students from different schools failed their Higher and National 5s media studies exam.

An entire class of eight failed the end of year exam after only two out of nine pupils managed to pass the course last year.

The results from Auchenharvie High School in Stevenston, North Ayrshire, come after another Scottish school announced that students had performed poorly.

Media students at Inverness College, University of the Highlands and Islands, failed the same media course in two successive years.

The school said the results were "deeply disappointing" following a review of last year's results and promised to investigate the matter.

Now, North Ayrshire Council have announced that they will be investigating how an entire class at one of their schools failed.

And a source said that only two out of nine pupils received "an award" from the media studies class at Auchenharvie High for both Higher and National 5s last year.

Across Scotland, the rate of passing for A-C in higher media studies sat at only 59.8 per cent in 2017.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said that the results were not indicative of the whole school.

He said: "These results are in no way indicative of the entire school results, with a record number of students achieving Highers this year.

"Nevertheless, we are saddened that all eight Higher and two National 5 students were unsuccessful in their Media Studies exam this year.

"While these students successfully passed the internal units associated with the course, unfortunately, this did not lead to full qualification passes.

"We are currently investigating the matter to establish the cause of the situation along with the SQA.

"Once we have carried out our investigation, we will examine the best way forward to avoid a similar situation in future years.

"We will support all of our young people and their parents and carers affected by these exam results."

At Inverness College, part of the University of Highlands and Islands, 13 students failed this year's class which had been redesigned after all 22 pupils failed the previous year.

They have already decided that they will not be making a class in media studies available at the college for the 2017/18 session.

A spokeswoman for the college said: "We are already taking action to investigate the issue, including having further discussions with the SQA and to support candidates."

In 2016, only one pupil passed Higher and another passed National 5s in media studies at Auchenharvie High School in Stevenston, North Ayrshire.