Pupils and parents have been left in limbo after a fault hit the distribution of exam results.
Anxious teenagers across Scotland were due to receive their results today for National, Higher and Advanced Higher exams.
Many received blank emails which should have contained pupils' grades.
The emails were sent out to pupils who have signed up for a MySQA account, but while some have got their results, others have come through empty.
The SQA helpline has told some parents there have been a few inquiries about empty emails and that the authority is looking into it.
UCAS has confirmed that some pupils have received information about their University admission applications - without knowing what their results were.
An SQA spokesperson said the issue had now been resolved.
The spokesperson said: “We have resolved a technical issue that impacted candidates who signed up to receive their results by email only using the MySQA service.
"Texts were not impacted and the vast majority of learners who signed up to MySQA received their results as expected.
"We apologise for any concern caused to learners who experienced a delay before receiving their MySQA email with their results attached."
We are working urgently to resolve an issue impacting candidates who signed up to receive their results by email only. #SQAresults pic.twitter.com/VCcSUyDdZm
— SQA (@sqanews) August 6, 2024
The SQA helpline has said results should be coming through within the next half hour for those who haven’t had them yet.
Pupils have been waiting for their results today (stock pic) (Image: Jeff J Mitchell)
Herald Education correspondent James McEnaney, who was alerted to the situation early this morning, said the glitch was "another shambles" for the SQA, which was at one point due to be abolished by the Scottish Government.
He said: "All over the country, young people have woken up excited and anxious to find out their exam results, but for many of them things have started off in just about the worst possible way.
"We don’t know why yet, but it seems that lots and lots of lots of students have received emails with a blank space where their results should be. Some people have also received blank texts. Some people haven’t received texts at all.
"This doesn’t seem to be a regional issue, because I’ve been told that students in the same house have had different experiences, with one receiving their results in an email while another gets the blank version."
READ MORE: Resources for students' next steps on Results Day 2024
READ MORE: Free helpline offers support on SQA exam results day
Our correspondent added: "This looks very much like an issue with the mail-merging function used to send out these sort of mass communications, but it is absolutely humiliating for the SQA.
"This, don’t forget, is the organisation that was so unreliable, and that had so entirely lost the confidence of teachers and students, that the SNP decided it was going to be abolished.
"They have since rowed back from that position, so now we’re basically expecting a rebrand, but yet another results day scandal will raise major questions about the competence of an organisation that is charged with overseeing not just an important day in the education calendar, but one of the most stressful days in the young lives of Scotland’s students."
Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for education Liam Kerr MSP said: “This chaotic and shambolic situation is the last thing pupils across Scotland needed on results day.
“Receiving a blank email will have only added to pupils worries about how they did in their exams.
“Successive SNP education secretaries have dithered and delayed on reforming the SQA for too long. Even then their plans amount to a sticking plaster rather than the widespread changes that Scottish education requires.
“Those in charge at the SQA must urgently be upfront as to why many students have failed to receive their results as they expected to and ensure these errors are rectified as soon as possible for all those affected.”
Scottish Labour Education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “Young people across Scotland should have woken up this morning to exciting news - instead they have woken up to a new level of SQA chaos.
“It is simply unacceptable that thousands of young people have been forced to undergo real anxiety due to this SQA technical failure."
She added: “The results speak for themselves - the poverty-related attainment gap is at its highest ever level, while attainment has also fallen for all.
"Higher pass rates are equal to the lowest level on record and pass rates are well below the pre-pandemic standard.
“Despite the best efforts of teachers, staff and Scotland’s young people, they are being forced to pay the price of 17 years of SNP failure and SQA chaos."
“Young people in Scotland have been badly let down and the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary cannot avoid responsibility.”
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