PUPILS at Greenwood Academy were left “devastated” and “upset” after receiving their Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) exam results.

It comes after it was revealed that the SQA had lowered almost 125,000 estimated grades – a quarter of the total - with the pass rate for pupils in the most deprived areas reducing by 15.2 per cent, more than double of that of those from the most affluent backgrounds who saw their results drop by only 6.9 per cent.

The Education Secretary since announced he will abondon the downgrade after backlash from students who felt they had been treated unfairly by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) when it recalculated their results.

Nicole Tait, a sixth-year pupil at Greenwood Academy, said: “When I received the results text I became very upset like most young people as well as the teachers who have done so much for us.

“I felt angry and I could not understand that after all the hard work I had put in to receive grades like that.

“My life felt ruined wondering what my next steps could be.

“When I had seen that there was a chance my grades were lowered because of my school being in a deprived area I felt angry that they could kick young people when they were already down after this horrible year of basically being locked up in our houses.”

Fellow pupil, Ellie Little, added: “I was extremely annoyed and upset when I received my results as I, and all of the other pupils worked very hard all year and now we have been unfairly marked down just because of the area we live in.”

Cunninghame South MSYP Aaran McDonald called on Deputy First Minister John Swinney to launch an urgent inquiry into the data.

He said: “I find it deeply worrying that young people from my background and from schools like the one I attended are being discriminated against simply because of their social class and the school they attend.

“Young people who have worked hard, studied and performed highly to justify the grades their teachers projected, have been left upset and hurt after being unfairly downgraded.”

An SQA spokesperson said: “We believe we have delivered fairness to learners, through a consistent, evidence-based approach in the absence of exams. We have maintained the integrity and credibility of our qualifications system, ensuring that standards are maintained over time, in the interests of learners, through judicious moderation of grades.

“The most disadvantaged young people have achieved better results in 2020 compared to both 2019 and the average results for the last four years.

“Our free appeals service is open and schools and colleges that have questions about a candidate’s final grade can appeal the result, if it is lower than what they estimated.”