Mary Mulligan: Scathing findings

The cross-party committee of MSPs said the design and implementation of the new "Higher Still" exams system remained open to question.

They called into question the role of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools in its development.

The MSPs said the Scottish Executive had to look carefully at its role in the crisis.

The report also concluded that a millennium bug may still be lying dormant in the SQA computer system and suggested it could pose problems next year.

Releasing the findings of the education committee's much-awaited report, convener Mary Mulligan MSP said the SQA was ill-equipped and complacent.

Mrs Mulligan said: "To say there was a lack of preparation and foresight by the SQA is an understatement.

"Our report shows that vital areas of SQA were under-staffed, under-resourced, subject to poor internal and external communications, and the management and board were complacent and unwilling to admit these shortcomings until too late."

It has to be said that the staff within the operations unit went to often superhuman efforts to try to complete tasks they had been given

MSPs' report

The report found that key figures in the SQA gambled on getting things right at considerable cost to their staff and to the detriment of parents, pupils and teachers.

When the gamble failed the consequences were much more damaging than would have been the case if management had been honest and straightforward from the beginning.

MSPs found it "quite astounding" the finance, planning and general purposes committee of the SQA only met three times a year and from November 1999 until August met only once.

The report also said a significant cause of the shambles was large amounts of unprocessed data being given to an operations unit that had been downgraded.

MSPs said: "It has to be said that the staff within the operations unit went to often superhuman efforts to try to complete tasks they had been given."

Confusion was then compounded by the changing of validation rules to prevent duplicate entries.

Resignation calls

The report has brought a stinging response from Scotland's opposition parties, who still blame former education minister Sam Galbraith, at least partly, for the fiasco.

Scottish Conservative education spokesman Brian Monteith said: "This is the first inquiry that investigated the role of the executive in the exams chaos and its conclusions point to negligence by the minister, Sam Galbraith."

SNP education spokesman Mike Russell

Scottish National Party education spokesman Mike Russell said: "I believe the evidence presented to the committee leads to the inescapable conclusion that Sam Galbraith did not take sufficient action to prevent the catastrophe.

"This leads us to the conclusion that he should have resigned after 9 August."

Liberal Democrat MSP Iain Jenkins said: "I think they (the SQA) were in a state of corporate denial. They just didn't seem to know what was going on."

Scotland's biggest teaching union said the report highlighted the need for radical change to the Higher Still system.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland said: "These changes should be made ready for implementation in time for the start of the 2001-2002 session."

Formal response

The SQA said it would respond in full to the committee's report next week, but disputed the conclusion that a millennium bug could cause disruption next year.

It said in a statement: "As per national industry guidelines on Y2K compliance, SQA carried out mandatory IT health checks on a regular basis with no problems identified.

Education Minister Jack McConnell welcomed the report and said he agreed with the key recommendation that there should be no repeat of the crisis and that the reputation of the SQA had to be restored.

The minister said he would make a formal response to both committee inquiry reports in due course.