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| Sats marking contract is scrapped | Sats marking contract is scrapped |
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| Exams authority the QCA has ended its contract with exams administrator ETS Europe after this summer's marking controversy. | Exams authority the QCA has ended its contract with exams administrator ETS Europe after this summer's marking controversy. |
| Problems with the marking of national test results, or Sats, for England's 11 and 14 year olds have delayed results and prompted concerns about quality. | |
| ETS is to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. The total contract for 2008 was worth £39.6m. | |
| The QCA said the five-year contract was ended by "mutual consent". | |
| Problems with the summer's marking schedule first emerged when Education Secretary Ed Balls announced that Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 results were to be delayed. | |
| But markers had been warning of problems with the administration of the tests for some time. | |
| Ministers then announced an independent inquiry headed by Lord Sutherland, who was to examine issues surrounding the delivery of the tests. This inquiry will continue. | |
| As it stands some 95% of Key Stage 3 results have been delivered to schools. This breaks down as 92.8% of English, 96.6% of maths and 96% of science results returned. | |
| The figures for Key Stage 2 are higher, with 99% of results being returned as of 31 July. However, it is not clear what proportion of schools are still missing some results. |