Scottish Labour Leader Calls for Exam Appeal Fee to be Scrapped

Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, called for the recently introduced exam appeal fee to be scrapped today ahead of a visit to Dunfermline High School.

Exam appeals were free until last year when the Scottish Government introduced a fee.

It applies when an appeal, or an exam ‘review’ is carried out but the grade awarded is not changed. 

The cost is handled by the school which has led to a drop in the number of comprehensive school exam appeals in Scotland. 

Ms Dugdale said: "The problem is that lots of schools, lots of pupils, lots of local councils can't afford to pay the fee so, sometimes kids who would like to have been able to appeal the results just can't.

"Now here in Fife the Labour council has made sure no child has had to pay, but that's not happening in other parts of Scotland and I think that's unfair. I'm calling for the SNP government to scrap that fee altogether.

"We've got exciting plans I set out about two weeks ago now about how to make our schools fairer and more just, to make sure that what your parents earn doesn't determine how well you do at school, that's too often the case still in Scotland.

"We need to close that gap between the richest kids and the poorest kids... to make sure every kid gets the best possible chance in life." 

The year following the introduction of the fee has seen the number of state school exam appeals drop by 88 percent.