While I agree with the sentiment of your post Digger one thing needs to be made clear, Sturgeon HASN'T done a u-turn, there was nothing for her to do a u-turn on. The Scottish government had nothing whatsoever to do with the downgrading of exam results as the SQA (who rightly downgraded the pass % but wrongly applied it across the board) are completely independent of government.
What she did do was issue an apology (why I don't know, maybe she ultimately believes it's her responsibility as FM) for the upset and anxiety this has caused pupils and for how the SQA went about their unfair downgrading of individual pupils who warranted a higher grade.
She also promised to step in and amend the system the SQA used to come to their conclusions. (which btw is something her political rivals would usually be demanding her head on a spike for as it would normally be considered political interference in an independent authority but as the Scots Tories & Labour have made such a song and dance about all of this being ScotGov's fault and how it was up to them to fix it they can't very well now start condemning what they've been demanding).
If you look beyond the screaming headlines of all of this the reality is schools across the UK fiddled the numbers and exaggerated their estimates on expected grades, the qualification authorities in each country corrected that fiddle but done it in a unfair way which also downgraded the results of individuals who were likely to have a higher pass grade. Also worth noting that in England and Wales there was a 40% downgrading of results and there is NO process for pupils to appeal against the decision while in Scotland there was a 26% downgrading but every pupil has the right to an appeal and get the grade overturned.
The absolute nonsensical and telling thing about the insane shrieking by the Scottish Tories, Scottish Labour and the UK press in all of this is that NOT ONE OF THEM are blaming the UK (Tory run) or the Welsh (Labour run) governments for these downgraded exam results yet are lambasting the Scottish government for it even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with any government! And even if it did there were less pupils downgraded in Scotland, there is an appeals process open to pupils in Scotland which doesn't even exist for pupils in England and Wales and the Scottish government are the only government who are stepping in to change the flawed system used by their country's qualification authority.
The reporting of Scottish issues, not just by the press in Scotland but the rest in the UK, is getting so fucking skewed and devoid of facts it's getting ridiculous. Think the BritNats may be getting worried about something, wonder whit that could be!