Over-lenient and often downright fraudulent passes at National 4 have been handed out like sweeties.

I may be writing this piece as someone with personal experience in one Scottish local authority, but, believe me, it could have been written by a teacher in any of the other 31.

I know that you’ll be disgusted to hear this. But what can we do?

The following will have happened to many of us: you refuse to pass a child on the grounds that they had actually failed. Then suddenly the child passes.

Was it the deputy head who “coached” the pupil through it? Was it the head? Or was it the young, impressionable and career-hungry whippersnapper down the corridor, of whom the year head popped in to ask a favour?

Last year, I snapped and hit one of the repeat offenders in my school with a verbal tirade. I accused my colleague of sackable offences. They challenged me to ask myself a question: “What would happen if David didn’t get his National 4 passes?”

I refused to bite. “A fail is a fail!” I replied.

Their response was: “We fail that child and they don’t get into college - we ruin their life. You would have destroyed any chance of a future!”

Some call this “bridging the gap”. I call it disgusting. Colleges ask for at least three National 4 qualifications: English, maths and one other closely related to the subject at hand. I spoke to one college about challenging this requirement, and was told that under the old qualifications system, they always asked for at least three general standard grades.

I reminded the chap at the college of the reality that the overall pass in standard grade was more forgiving. National 4 is a different ball game. This, it seems, is reason enough to fudge results.

When a school is assessed on its National 4 results, or on college progression, it’s not surprising that it hands out free National 4 passes. But what about the verification process, designed to allow the Scottish Qualifications Authority to check externally that schools can handle qualifications such as National 4?

One response seems to be: “Don’t panic - we just don’t send one of the artificial passes back to be verified anyway.”

Have we, then, become a country full of artificially bloated National 4 passes?

The writer, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a secondary teacher in Scotland