A SCOTTISH exam paper has had to be withdrawn because of a mistake.
Examiners said an error had been identified in a diagram in the National 5 Modern Studies paper to be sat by pupils on Friday.
A corrected replacement paper has now been sent out to all schools by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
The SQA said the exam timetable would continue as planned and that no pupil would be disadvantaged because of the error.
The mistake has come at a difficult time for the SQA with the organisation under fire from teaching unions over the burdensome nature of assessments.
The SQA was also criticised by politicians after The Herald revealed that last year’s computing studies National 5 contained several errors.
Education Secretary John Swinney told the Scottish Parliament at the time: “I think, frankly, that is not good enough, these issues should be checked properly, there is adequate opportunity for this to be done and I have made clear my discontent about that to the chief examiner.”
The previous year the body admitted a mathematics Higher exam was too hard with the pass mark dropped significantly to ensure no pupils missed out.
An SQA spokesman said: “We identified one typographical error on a diagram in the National 5 Modern Studies question paper, and quickly acted to issue replacement papers.
“We have procedures in place should an issue of this nature occur. All centres have been provided with clear instructions on how to handle the old and new papers.”
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