Given the year everyone's had, might it not have been more ethical to round the grades up rather than down? On a purely moral basis, when considering not only the impact of lockdown on schools, but also on pupils prospects for work, couldn't they have done with a boost?
Which implication is more serious:

1/ pupil gets a grade that is higher than their ability
2/ pupil gets a grade that is lower than their ability

I say the latter is most concerning and its implications more severe.
If we are going as far as handing out results without sitting exams in the first place, surely we could have been generous enough not to *checks notes* undermine the best guesses of the teachers who work with these kids by marking them down.
Say 26 per cent of the grades were not changed. And some of those kids put themselves forward for jobs or uni courses they might not manage, or might require support. I say that is preferable to kids being downgraded, the implications of which are far more serious.
It's basically an ethical question: do you preserve credibility of the system by feeding kids results into a formula in the hope it will produce a number that looks right. Or preserve it by conceding this has been an extraordinary year and give the teachers benefit of the doubt?
I think a kid getting a higher grade than they should stands less risk of serious consequences further down the line than a kids getting a lower grade than they should - and that's before you even factor in the disparity in downgrading between social classes.
Just as a general principle, we should have thrown our weight behind all these kids this year. How many adults were bailed out by govt schemes? How many companies and corporations were handed free passes? We are holding school kids to higher standards than we hold ourselves.
I fear the the SQA has undermined its credibility by rousing such widespread scepticism - the opposite of what intended to do my making it. I know it's not a simple issue, but did this have to be sooo bloody complicated?

Short answer: no
i know that thread is a bit rough. I'm still working on my arguments and Im sure there are things I haven't considered. But still, leaving the grades as they were is more ethical than arbitrarily lowering them to lend 'credibility' to a system that is already held in low regard
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