South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth welcomed the news yesterday that thousands of pupils in the south of Scotland are to have their exam results upgraded after the Scottish Government agreed to accept teacher estimates of scores.

However, he maintains that Education Secretary John Swinney position is untenable following the debacle which he presided over.

After an announcement in the Scottish Parliament yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), it is now the case that all results that were downgraded will be withdrawn and replaced by the original teachers estimates.

Colin Smyth said: “This climbdown by the Education Secretary will be welcomed by the thousands of local pupils who had their exam results unfairly marked down.

“The restoration of pupils’ achievement based on the professional judgement of teachers who know them is a victory for fairness, for common sense and above all for those young people who refused to take this injustice lying down.

“But it begs so many questions about how on earth it came to this. The Education Secretary must explain why he failed to listen to warnings as far back as April that the proposed exams system would be a recipe for chaos.

“The system used to award results was completely unjust and fundamentally wrong, and even last week the Scottish Government defended it. It is unacceptable that it took the tabling by Labour of a vote of no confidence in the Education Secretary to force a u-turn.

“But the reality is John Swinney’s position remains completely untenable. This is the latest, and worst, in a string of mistakes and missteps and he needs to step aside because he has lost the confidence of pupils, parents and teachers.”