The number of requests for special arrangements during Scottish Qualifications Authority exams - including more time and completing the paper outside the exam hall - rose again this year.
This year 36,580 learners requested special arrangements during the 2025 exam diet, with 119,405 requests in total.
The most common requests were for extra time (88,460) and for separate accommodation (80,045).
Last year, during the 2024 exam diet, 32,030 learners requested special arrangements for exams, with 104,695 requests in total. In 2019, which is as far back as publicly available SQA data goes, 20,160 learners made 62,505 requests.
SQA invigilator spend doubles
Meanwhile, a reveals that the amount spent by the SQA on invigilators more than doubled between 2015-16 and 2024-25, going from £2.1 million to £4.9 million.
The SQA says the main reason for rising costs is “significant increases in the number of learners requiring assessment arrangements” (or AAs) because this has “increased demand for invigilation”.
In 2025 the number of invigilators employed by the SQA was 8,014, up from 5,584 in 2016, according to data released in .
Now secondary headteachers are warning that requests for special arrangements in exams are “through the roof”, “not at all sustainable” and likely to rise further.
SQA results day 2025:
Graham Hutton, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, said that AAs will “only increase” because of the rise in young people with additional support needs (ASN) and also the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But, he said, schools are struggling to meet these requests.
“Some schools are struggling with the extra accommodation required, running out of small rooms and nooks and crannies which they can use for individual assessments,” said Mr Hutton.
“This is indeed getting to a crisis point in some schools, which are already chock-a-block with pupils. This is particularly so on the days when N5 English or maths are running.”
Mr Hutton suggested tightening up on the criteria for AAs and redefining “who is entitled, to make sure this is as robust as it can be.”
However, he also called for more fundamental changes to be made to the way students are assessed.
A reduction in the number of exams and the length of exams would help to mitigate the issues, particularly with regard to accommodation and invigilators, he said.
Call for alternative assessment
“A pupil with ASN can be sitting a Higher exam for two hours and have extra time, which makes it over three hours. Is this really the best option? Alternative means of assessment need to be seriously looked at, rather than the traditional written exams,” Mr Hutton said.
He added that the Hayward review proposal - rejected by education secretary Jenny Gilruth - to scrap external exams below Higher level would have been “a positive move in the right direction”.
While that proposal was rejected, Ms Gilruth did agree there should be “less reliance on high-stakes final exams”, with internal and continuous assessment playing a bigger part.
It remains to be seen how significant any changes are.
In June the Scottish government published a timeline showing that fully reformed qualifications at National 4 and National 5 levels will be fully available from 2031, with the new Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications introduced in 2032.
You can also read about headline trends in today’s SQA data and results, and in another piece, we look at subject-by-subject grade boundaries at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher.
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