A political row has been sparked in Scotland by a drop in the pass rate for Higher level English exams.

The Scottish Qualification Authority revealed on Tuesday that 59.2 per cent of candidates passed Higher English compared to 64.7 per cent last year.

Overall the pass rate also fell by 0.1 per cent on 2002 and 2.3 per cent on 2001.

While the news countered criticism of "grade inflation" ahead of A Level results in England and Wales on Thursday, questions were set to be asked of the standards of teaching in Scottish schools.

The English exam was made harder this year and the pass mark dropped three per cent accordingly.

Scottish education minister Peter Peacock pledged to "look carefully" at an assessment panel report into the results.

"We are in the midst of a very major series of changes in the English exam and it is very difficult, in that period of change, to make year-on-year comparisons," he told the BBC.

But the SNP's education spokeswoman said the issue of standards needed to be addressed immediately and any problems in the administration of exams should be cleared up.

"Next year's cohort of pupils must be reassured by the education minister that they will not have to face the particular and exceptional difficulties presented in the 2003 format of the exam," Fiona Hyslop said.

"And...most importantly, the government must face up to the worrying fact that almost the same number of pupils sat the exam this year as in 2002, but this time one quarter of students achieved less than 30 percent.

"We need to tackle the core problem of standards rather than create a blame culture between schools and the government."