The exam body was forced to admit it did not consider conducting a fully independent review, instead assessing the results internally.
It found the standard for higher history marking had not been altered after the exams took place, and were the same as previous years.
Concerns were raised after a large drop emerged in the number of students achieving grades A to C.
In August, the number of pupils who passed higher history with the top grades fell 13 percentage points, while marks in the Scottish history paper dropped 25%.
The exam body’s review said markers “overwhelmingly focused on the poor standards of responses provided by learners”.
Ms Gilruth and SQA boss Fiona Robertson were hauled before Holyrood’s education committee in December, but calls for a full independent review continue.
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The committee’s education convener Douglas Ross told Ms Gilruth a survey of Scottish Association of Teachers of History (SATH) members was “overwhelmingly critical” of the SQA review.
After the Education Secretary told MSPs she accepted the findings of the SQA’s review, Mr Ross said: “The Cabinet Secretary said she accepts the SQA review, why will she not accept the findings of the survey from the Scottish Association of Teachers of History?
“It was overwhelmingly critical and did not accept the outcome of that independent review and the Cabinet Secretary mentioned a meeting that the Scottish Association of Teachers of History had with the SQA, the president said that it didn’t look at the possibility of having another investigation and looking back at what went wrong this time.
“Will the Cabinet Secretary take her head out of the sand and accept this has not gone well. It has not been handled well by the Scottish Government or the SQA and the only way to resolve this to please all parties is to have a truly independent review.”
Ms Gilruth said she was taking an “active interest” in the concerns raised, adding that just 17% of SATH members had responded to the survey.
However, she said: “The Scottish Government has accepted the findings of the SQA’s 2024 higher history review which was an operational matter for the SQA.
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“The Scottish Government and SQA met with the Scottish Association of Teachers of History immediately after the survey results and agreed that there would be a package of measures to support teachers delivering higher history in 2025, including a dedicated inquiry line so that teachers, lecturers and school leaders can raise questions directly with the SQA.
“I have asked to meet with the president of SATH and I look forward to doing so.”
Scottish Labour education spokeswoman Pam Duncan-Glancy, said: “The Cabinet Secretary will know that it’s not just the Association of History that are furious. She’s also had correspondence, as I have, who said ‘there is a huge distrust between teachers and the SQA. They’re a laughing stock’.
“And another has said ‘they’ve mucked up kids futures’. That the Cabinet Secretary still won’t launch or instruct an independent inquiry really does beggar belief.”
The SQA said an independent exams expert verified the findings of their review.
A total of 174 teachers responded to the SATH survey, with more than 80% of respondents said the classes they entered for higher history last year were either similar to, or stronger than, previous groups.
However, nearly the same number of teachers confirmed their students’ grades were either worse or significantly worse than expected.