Postcode lottery for Scotland children.
Categories: Past Event Articles
Wednesday November 11 2020
After this year’s Scotland school exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, teachers were asked to estimate a grade for each pupil. These results were then modified by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), which led to 125,000 estimated grades being lowered – a quarter of all results.
But they were not reduced equally across the board. Instead the higher pass rate for pupils from the most deprived backgrounds was reduced by 15.2 percentage points compared to 6.9 percentage points for the wealthiest pupils.
With BAME communities and thus children form black and ethnic minorities backgrounds being more likely to live in deprived areas in Scotland we can see that SQA’s actions will have a disproportionally adverse effect on BAME communities. The same can be said for the Muslim community with 41% of Scotland’s Muslim community lives below the poverty line which means that 41% of the Muslim community are likely to be living in deprived areas in Scotland. What does this tell us? It tells us that Muslim communities will have been adversely affected by the SQA’s 2020 policy to lower exam results in deprived areas across Scotland.
But all is not lost, after initial support for SQA’s 2020 policy Scotland’s political system is now taking an in-depth look at the floundering system. With Education Secretary John Swinney setting out a plan to rectify the matter at Scottish Parliament.
This was a backtrack from the government following action from pupils, who took to the streets in Scotland to protest the results and inequality of the decisions, an open statement to our politicians from STUC Black Workers Committee and actions by many other organisations and individuals. This along with SQA’s own appeals process, https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93678.html, we hope will soon bring a positive resolution to all those who have been so adversely effected by this very unfair system.
But for those who do not receive the support and resolution they deserve then please contact MEND for support and advice. https://www.mend.org.uk/report-islamophobia/report-an-incident/