The Scottish government’s decision to withdraw changes to teacher-assessed grades that would have left students with poorer exam results will place huge pressure on Gavin Williamson to do the same, a teachers’ leader has said.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said that controversy over exam grades was a “cut-through issue” that would seize the public imagination, as Dominic Cummings’ journey to Barnard Castle had done.

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Scotland’s education secretary John Swinney announced this afternoon that in cases where pupils have had their Higher results reduced after moderation, teacher-assessed grades will be used instead. 

Mr Swinney said young people had been put through “anguish” over the outbreak Covid-19, and that in some cases the grading process used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) had made this worse.

“I can confirm to parliament today that all downgraded awards will be withdrawn,” he said. He said that he would use powers from the Education (Scotland) Act 1996 to direct the SQA to reissue those awards based solely on teacher judgement.

Where pupils had had their grade increased through moderation, they would keep the grade. 

“We set out to ensure that the system was fair, we set out to ensure that it was credible, but we did not get it right for all young people,” Mr Swinney said.

Dr Bousted said: “I think that makes it very difficult for Ofqual and for [education secretary] Gavin Williamson and [schools minister] Nick Gibb.

“If Scotland can see that essentially the same process has resulted in outcomes that are disadvantageous to children and young people who are already disadvantaged - and will say more about a school’s past performance than what they actually should achieve - then if it’s the same process used in England and has the same outcomes as Scotland, who are now moving to rectify what is an injustice, then the pressure on English ministers has become absolutely huge.

“And of course, this is a cut-through issue. People care about this. Dominic Cummings was a cut-through issue, exams are as well, people care about that.”

She added: “If we had a more balanced mode of assessment [with coursework and exams] there would be much more for centres to go on and much more standardised work for them to base their judgements on.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Scotland is perfectly within its rights to make its own decisions about grading, but abandoning moderation obviously means it is out of kilter with the rest of the UK where standardisation is being used.

“There are good reasons for standardisation because it means this year’s grades are kept roughly in line with other years so that there is fairness to students over time.

“But there is clearly a tension when this leads to a situation where centre-assessed grades that were submitted in good faith by schools and colleges are then pulled down because of a statistical model, particularly if this detrimentally impacts on disadvantaged students.

“The decision in Scotland will put pressure on authorities in the other home nations to follow suit, and we will have to see how this plays out. All of this again demonstrates why it is important that universities show a spirit of generosity in determining applications this year and take into account a wide range of evidence.”