The head of one of the NAHT, Mick Brookes, says the SATs test results, which are already expected to fall by 2%, may need to be annulled. He said some schools had not had their children’s test scripts returned, some had had them returned unmarked, some had been returned to the wrong schools. But the greater concern was that the “hot house” pressure on the markers to get the job done “is bound to lead to greater mistakes”. This was particularly so in English, and in the writing element of the English tests, which was far more time consuming than the simpler right or wrong answers in maths.
Ken Boston, the head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, today told MPs he is exploring “legal avenues” after he was forced to send 70 of his own staff into ETS, which was contracted to run the national tests to sort the debacle out.
Boston, speaking in front of the commons select committee, said that the majority of schools would get their results by the end of this week but an unnamed number would have to wait until September to inform pupils of their results.
