Scottish Labour has demanded that education secretary Jenny Gilruth makes a parliamentary statement over the ongoing controversy around the SQA’s handling of this year’s Higher History exam.

The party’s education spokesperson, Pam Duncan-Glancy, says that “SNP has covered for the SQA instead of standing up for pupils and teachers” and called on Ms Gilruth to “provide some much-needed answers on this saga.”

The intervention comes after The Herald reported that First Minister John Swinney had "questions to answer" over his defending of the SQA during last week’s session of First Minister’s Questions.

Mr Swinney claimed that “a thorough and independent review” had been carried out and added that the report had been “peer reviewed” by the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC).

However, when asked about the approach taken during the investigation, including the decision to only interview those with links to Scotland’s exam board and whose work was ultimately being investigated, a WJEC spokesperson refused to comment on the ‘methodology’ of the review.

Instead, they advised that their role had only been to ensure that the evidence provided in the report matched the conclusions presented. Questions about the way in which that evidence had been gathered were referred back to the SQA.

The SQA was forced to launch the investigation after teachers, including current markers, reported that the standard for Higher History had been altered after the exam had taken place. They accused the exam board, and specifically those in charge of History marking, of “moving the goalposts” and subjecting students to an “unfair” process.

Critics argued that this change was behind a 25% drop in pupils’ performance levels in the Scottish History part of the exam, and a 13% decline in the overall pass rate.

The review, which was carried out by an SQA official, found that the exam board had acted properly and blamed pupils for the drastic drop in attainment rates and performance levels. Critics immediately accused the organisation of engaging in a ‘whitewash’, and teachers who contacted The Herald explicitly rejected the report’s conclusions.

Scottish Labour Education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said: “The SNP has huge questions to answer about the chaos surrounding last year’s Higher History exam and the SQA’s handling of this fiasco.

“At every turn, the SNP has covered for the SQA instead of standing up for pupils and teachers.

“In light of these new revelations, the Education Secretary must come before the Parliament and provide some much-needed answers on this saga.

“Scottish education has been let down by SNP incompetence for too long – we need genuine reform and a change in direction.”

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Responding after deadline and following publication of our original story, which stated that John Swinney may have misled MSPs when defending the SQA report, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “These claims are totally untrue. 

“It is a matter of public record that Richard Harry, Executive Director of Qualifications and Assessment at Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC), independently peer reviewed and endorsed the SQAs report following  their review into the marking of Higher History this year.

“The Scottish Government has accepted the findings of the SQA's report, including improving how feedback received from markers is considered.”