OVER the past seven months, we have heard time and time again how this pandemic has shown the very best in people. In communities, activists have been on the ground since day one helping out wherever they can, and our hero key workers have gone above and beyond to ensure that the essential work that we all rely on gets done.

Many of those who have stepped up are our city’s young people: whether it’s to volunteer in their local community or continuing to work throughout this pandemic, young Glaswegians have contributed a significant amount to keep our city moving. Unfortunately, that gratitude has not been echoed by the Scottish Government.

This year, school exams were cancelled with a plan drawn up by the SQA to use a system which took teacher estimates for each pupil, then moderated them based on results from previous years. From the get-go, teachers, officials and Labour MSPs warned Education Secretary John Swinney that this method was deeply flawed. He chose not to listen and what we saw in August was outrage, heartbreak and a system rigged against working-class young people.

And in new data published by University of Glasgow education researcher Barry Black, we can now see the full scale of how this systemic failure impacted those pupils and schools across our city – the evidence shows that those schools in the poorest areas of Glasgow suffered, being four times more likely than private schools to have passing Higher grades changed to a fail.

In schools where less than 10% of pupils were in receipt of free school meals, 21.6% of all grades were downgraded. That figure almost doubles to 39.9% for schools with more than 40% receiving free school meals. In some parts of our city, the contrast is even starker. In my own area, Drumchapel High School saw 44% of all grades adjusted down.

Despite all the evidence, the SQA maintain that they have “no regrets” about their model of moderation. And our Education Secretary was completely unable to understand, much less address, these deep injustices. How can young people, teachers or parents have any trust or faith in our education system?

Young people have been failed by this Scottish Government: whether it’s the SQA results fiasco, the shocking treatment of new university students moving into halls of residence in the middle of a pandemic, the ongoing mental health crisis or the constant support for landlords over tenants by the SNP in Holyrood. None of this is to mention the absolute failure to establish a Test and Protect system that actually protects people.

The pandemic has been a challenge to us all, not least to those in Government. But compare the uncertainty, lack of clarity and downright meanness of the SNP in Scotland, to the certainty, stability and leadership on display elsewhere. Whether that is the decisive action by the Welsh Labour Government, or even that of the newly re-elected Labour Government of Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand.

Scotland sets itself up as a world leader in wellbeing. We can be, but we need real leadership to get there.