A problem which caused delays in the marking of some pupils' exam papers has been tackled, according to the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

A new system designed to handle this year's papers led to some going astray.

Some markers had to travel many miles to retrieve the exam scripts.

In some cases it could take a teacher several hundred miles of driving about simply to pick up the scripts they are trying to mark

David Eaglesham SSTA

However, the SQA said that only a handful of people were affected - and stressed the process was now back on track.

The problems affected pupils' completed exam papers.

The SQA has been using a new contractor to send the scripts to nearly 9,000 markers.

However, some markers said problems had arisen when delivery could not be made because no-one was at home.

"In some cases members were in one location and the depot for the distributors was in another location, and that could be 20, 30, 40 or 60 miles apart," said David Eaglesham, the general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teacher's Association (SSTA).

Special helpline

"In some cases it could take a teacher several hundred miles of driving about simply to pick up the scripts they are trying to mark."

Marking was delayed - and in a few cases bundles of scripts became lost in the system.

The SQA set up a special helpline to deal with the problem and said that only a handful of markers have reported further delays.

The authority said all the scripts have now been delivered and that the marking process is well ahead of schedule.

One million exam papers have been completed

A quarter of the one million scripts completed by Scottish pupils should have been dealt with by this stage, but more than a half have already been marked.

That is in sharp contrast to the SQA's response in 2000 - when thousands of results were late or wrong.

The swift response this year has won praise from parents' and teachers' leaders.

Last week it emerged that unmarked standard grade exam papers had been wrongly posted to an address in Edinburgh.

Three bundles containing 80 complete graphic communication papers, delivered by registered mail, were addressed to a marker who had moved house without telling Scotland's exams body.

The SQA said this was an isolated incident and launched its own investigation.