Sats to be published as scheduled

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The government has decided to publish provisional primary school Sats results for England next week as scheduled.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said his statisticians felt publication should go ahead despite "continuing issues around completing marking".

Independent watchdog Ofqual has said there is no evidence of widespread problems with the quality of the marks.

The QCA testing authority says it is "deeply concerned" by the failure of its contractor, ETS, to return results.

Advice

In a letter to the head of the Commons schools select committee, Mr Balls said publication of the results was a matter for his department's head of profession for statistics.

Ofqual recognises that the confidence of teachers, parents, pupils and the wider public has been damaged Regulator Ofqual He had to satisfy himself each year that "the volume and quality of data available are sufficient to publish provisional national results and that there is broad consistency of results with previous years".

This year he had sought and considered advice from the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) on marking quality and any other relevant information.

In the light of this advice, his decision was that the Key Stage 2 publication should go ahead as planned on 5 August.

In line with the normal annual process, provisional Key Stage 3 results were scheduled to be published a week later and the head statistician would repeat this process of seeking advice, with a further statement to be made on 4 August.

Confidence

Ofqual has also released a statement.

It said: "Ofqual recognises that the confidence of teachers, parents, pupils and the wider public has been damaged by the problems in delivering this year's national curriculum tests.

QCA is deeply concerned by the continuing failure of its contractor ETS to get ... results back to some schools Qualifications and Curriculum Authority "However Ofqual advised that, as at 28 July, there was no evidence of widespread problems with the quality of the marks at Key Stage 2 that would justify withholding publication of the provisional results at national level.

"Ofqual will be closely monitoring the review process to ensure that it is carried through accurately and objectively, so that pupils get the marks their work deserves."

Once the review process - that is, appeals - was over it would produce further advice on the results as they then stood and their use at the local authority and school level.

Results outstanding

Earlier this week the QCA said its National Assessment Agency arm was taking over this appeals process from ETS.

It said "a significant number" of results had still not yet been delivered to schools.

"ETS do still have a substantial number of scripts that remain to be marked and entered.

"QCA would like to reassure schools that they are working closely with ETS (Europe) to ensure these tasks are completed as quickly as possible.

"We expect that these outstanding scripts will significantly close the gap, alongside resolution of outstanding data processing issues."

The government says that according to the last figures released by ETS - almost a week ago - 99% of Key Stage 2 results "are now available to schools".

'Bland reassurances'

At Key Stage 3, 91% of results were available overall, with 84% available in English, 95% available in maths and 95% available in science, it says.

It is thought these figures include thousands of pupils who, schools say, are shown in the online results system as having been absent for tests when in fact they took them.

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "While the government offers bland reassurances that things will be 'alright on the night', teachers, heads and parents have lost faith in ministers' handling of this year's tests.

"Schools across the country have reported wildly erratic and inconsistent marking and there will be a significant number of appeals."

Ministers rightly did not trust ETS to handle the appeals process but had not moved to strip the firm of responsibility for next year's tests.

"Parents and pupils need certainty that this fiasco will not be repeated next year and the government isn't providing it."

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