QUEEN Anne High had more pupil grades lowered by the SQA than any other school in West Fife during this summer’s exam results fiasco, newly released data can reveal.

This came before changes were made by Education Secretary John Swinney which saw every lowered grade restored to its original level.

The Dunfermline secondary saw 36.9 per cent of higher grades lowered, with even the best faring school, Inverkeithing High, seeing 17 per cent of pupils downgraded.

Mid Scotland and Fife Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: “These figures reveal just how unfair this system was, just as the Scottish Greens had warned of for months. Pupils at Queen Anne and across the country were treated like statistics rather than people and judged more on their postcode than their abilities.

“Fortunately, Green MSPs were able to negotiate a solution which saw all 124,565 grades restored and the independent inquiry we secured has now published its findings, so there is no excuse for this to happen again."

New school-by-school figures show the system which replaced cancelled exams this spring was particularly unfair on young people in Scotland’s most deprived communities, which caused a major backlash on results day in August.

The system of ‘moderating’ estimated grades submitted by teachers unfairly disadvantaged pupils who attended schools with lower historical records, regardless of the individual pupil’s own history of achievement.

Other West Fife schools such as Dunfermline High saw 20.4 per cent of grades lowered, at St Columba’s it was 23.5 per cent and 26.4 per cent at Woodmill. Grades were raised again after pressure from pupils, teachers, parents and politicians.

Mr Ruskell said: "This is the power of constructive opposition with a minority government. If the SNP had a majority in parliament, I doubt we would have seen such a clear resolution to this shambles.”

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Dunfermline MSP, was previously the minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science and responded: “These figures show the Education Secretary was right to work with partners to find a solution to this issue.

“Downgraded awards were withdrawn and then re-issued, while John Swinney also announced an independent review into events following the cancelled exam diet. Important lessons have been learned and qualifications next year will reflect an individual’s work rather than any statistical model or the past performance of a pupil’s school.”