Top marks as pupils pass record number of Highers

Following the exam, two internet petitions were started to highlight the problems with one stating: “Students, teachers and parents alike are in disbelief at the exam set by the SQA for Higher maths”.

“There are some worries here, though, with pass rates at many levels falling slightly after a drop in Higher pass rates past year”.

More than 33,000 exam certificates will be dropping through the letterboxes of pupils across G postcode area from tomorrow (August 4).

Education secretary Angela Constance said the figures represented “another strong performance by Scotland’s young people”.

Thousands of Scottish pupils will find out today that they have passed a controversial Higher maths exam, after examiners agreed to lower the pass mark.

This year they have been ‘dual-run with the existing Highers as part of the phased introduction of new qualifications under Curriculum for Excellence in the senior phase of school.

Special Royal Mail planning teams have been working for many months to ensure that pupils get their results.

Pupils who sat the old version of the French Higher had a pass rate of 84.7 per cent, compared to 87.5 per cent for the new version.

A total of 107,295 pupils sat the new Highers with a pass rate of 79.2 per cent. A further 92,555 pupils sat the existing Highers, recording a pass rate of 76.7 per cent, slightly down on last year’s 77.1 per cent.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government faced calls for an urgent review of the new Higher maths exam amid claims the paper was “flawed and too difficult”.

Last year, the helpline received around 1,200 calls from students desperate for advice.

“This remains the biggest challenge in Scottish education so when the public sees pass rates increasing year on year it does not tell the real story”.

He said: “In setting the grade boundaries for existing and new Higher mathematics we looked closely at a range of factors including the routes taken into the qualification, the proportion of entries from S5, S6 and college, and the performance of candidates in areas of the assessment that were common across both qualifications”.

“The checks and balances in place ensure that students who would have gained a particular grade in a qualification in any previous year will still have done so at the same grade this year”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “As Scotland’s chief examining officer has made clear, comparing pass rates between the new and the existing Highers is extremely complex”. Teaching unions also welcomed the results, calling them a credit to pupils and teachers.

Alistair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, representing the country’s higher education institutes, said it would be “unhelpful” to speculate why the old and new Highers have different pass rates.