School minister's exams comments rubbished

6:00pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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By Deborah Lewis »

SCHOOLS Minister Ed Balls’s claim that the marking of SATs is “as good as previous years” has been rubbished by an East Lancashire head who continues to find botched jobs.

Mr Balls spoke to the House of Commons this week to update MPs on the disastrous marking of this year’s key stage two and three National Curriculum tests – better known as SATs – in English, maths and science.

The fiasco has left one in four primary schools with incomplete results for their 11-year-olds as they break up for summer, and almost a quarter of English results for 14-year-olds remain missing.

Major doubts have also been voiced nationwide about the reliability of marking.

The original deadline for all results to be available on July 8, but this week only 88 per cent of key stage three are done, and 98 per cent for key stage 2.

Mr Balls said he had been assured by independent regulator Ofqual that “the quality of marking is at least as good as previous years”.

But Anthony McNamara, head of St Augustine’s RC High School in Elker Lane, Billington, said he had proof that the marking is flawed.

Mr McNamara spoke to the Telegraph earlier this week after the online results for his school incorrectly marked down every single student taking the maths tests – 205 in total – as being absent.

Teachers have now discovered that for the science test scripts – the only scripts the school has yet received back – there are at least 30 errors in adding up final scores.

More worryingly, staff have noticed that in one instance, the same answer given by pupils has been marked both right and wrong, by the same marker.

Mr McNamara said: “We have only had a cursory glance through the scripts because we haven’t had the time to do more, but have already found many errors.

“We don’t know how significant the mistakes are yet, but it certainly proves Mr Balls wrong about the quality. There’s a major issue of credibility all over the country.

“I don’t know whether it’s possible to restore public confidence after so much has gone wrong.”

He believes the tests should be scrapped for 14-year-olds, adding: “I fully believe in accountability and showing progress, but the Government’s target culture is damaging.”

St Augustine’s, like many other schools, will have to face the problems again in September.

Mr Balls announced that the date for appeals has been extended to September 10 or 10 days after the start of term.

He still refused to apologise for the problems, instead pointing to the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and US marking firm ETS, who won the £165million five-year contract.

QCA are currently in “contractual discussions” with ETS, and in independent inquiry has been launched into the delays.