THE Education Secretary has admitted mistakes were made in introducing new exams in schools, but has refused to apologise.

Michael Russell said the process of implementing new qualifications under the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) had been "difficult", but insisted it"is succeeding and will succeed".

He told the Scottish Parliament's education committee that National qualifications, which replaced Standard Grades this summer, had created over-assessment in schools, but said this would decrease over the next year.

"Everybody who is involved in this process has made mistakes. Everybody can think of things they would want to do differently," he said.

"This can be difficult and has been difficult, it has not been perfect, no work of human hand is perfect.

"But I think that there has been genuine good work undertaken across the board, by this committee right through to schools, to individuals, and that has produced results and that's what we intend to go on doing."

Mr Russell faced calls to apologise to teachers, parents and pupils who had struggled with the changes. Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: "You have accepted there have been mistakes made in the course of this. You have said that there has been over-assessment.

"As the man who is ultimately responsible, would you like to apologise to the teachers, parents and pupils for what has gone on?"

Mr Russell responded: "No, what I'd like to do is to pay tribute to everybody who has worked so hard.

"Everybody has worked hard on this and it has been tough for a lot of different people, but in those circumstances we have done something that is worthwhile and is producing results for the young people of Scotland.

"CfE is a good thing which many, many people have worked together to make a success and I'm grateful to every single one of them."