Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to make a “divine intervention” after pupils were said to have been left in tears after an “unfair” Higher maths exam.
Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour deputy leader, called on the First Minister to act and also demanded the SNP leader “fix the unfair and unjust” exam appeals system.
She pressed Ms Sturgeon on the issue after more than 13,000 people signed two online petitions urging the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to take the difficulty level of the maths exam into account when marking.
Ms Dugdale recalled that the First Minister had written an article on the importance of Scotland’s education system for a newspaper just days ago, in which she described education as a “sacred responsibility”.
The Labour MSP said: “The appeals system and the new exams need sorted out.
“She said education is her sacred responsibility, it’s time for some divine intervention from this First Minister.”
But Ms Sturgeon accused Ms Dugdale of scaremongering.
As she was heckled by Labour MSPs during First Minister’s Questions, the SNP leader said: “I don’t think Labour members who are shouting abuse across the chamber right now are remotely interested in the fortunes of young people.
“As always the top priority of Labour members is simply to hurl abuse of the SNP: that will not be lost on anyone.”
The First Minister insisted: “No young person sitting the higher maths exam will be disadvantaged if it is found out the exam is more difficult than was intended.
“How can we say that with confidence? Because the SQA has the process in place every single year to moderate results, to take account of the fact an exam might be found to be easier or harder than was intended.”
Ms Dugdale had told Ms Sturgeon that schoolgirl Chloe Thomson, from Hawick in the Borders, said her “dream” of studying medicine at university “now seems completely out of reach due to the awful maths exam I endured”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I have huge sympathy for anybody who sits an exam and comes out of it feeling like that.
“Surely Kezia Dugdale’s responsibility is to relay back to that young person the assurance and reassurances the SQA has given and I have outlined in this chamber.
“Let me repeat it – no young person sitting the higher maths exam will be disadvantaged if it is found out the exam is more difficult than was intended.”
She added: “Instead of trying to play up those fears, surely Kezia Dugdale’s responsibility is to join us in reassuring that young person.”