FIFE Council need to answer some straightforward questions on the exam results issue, according to Alex Rowley.

The Fife MSP feels that with other local authorities making stats available to the public the council needs to act this coming week.

There are concerns amongst parents and children that they may have had their SQA results wrongly downgraded through the mechanism whereby teacher's assessments of pupils have been examined by the SQA and through their methodology some adjustments made.

However, Mr Rowley is concerned that this methodology may have been based on a school's previous performance going back some years.

He said: "This is a very worrying possibility whereby some Beath High School and Lochgelly High School pupils may have seen their assessment downgraded because of the schools' previous performances. It would be basically a postcode lottery."

The MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife feels that the local authority needs to provide vital information on this issue.

Firstly how many pupils in Fife have had their awards downgraded? And school by school how many awards have been downgraded?

He added: "These are perfectly reasonable questions and it is unbelievable that officials in Fife Council are currently refusing to give this information.

"If only one child was cheated out their qualification it would be totally unacceptable but, it is thousands.

"We must know what the numbers are for Fife so that we can understand the extent of the problem and it is unacceptable for council officials to refuse to issue this information.

"I am calling on the Scottish Government to take immediate action to ensure that the awarded grades are scrapped and pupils are given the grades assigned by their teachers - the people who know them and their work best".

Scottish Government Education Secretary John Swinney said on Wednesday that he felt that the system used had been 'fair and robust'.