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Exam head quits over Sats fiasco Exam head quits over Sats fiasco
(30 minutes later)
The head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has resigned from his post.The head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has resigned from his post.
Dr Ken Boston said he was "taking responsibility" following this summer's Sats fiasco, which left thousands of children without their exam results.Dr Ken Boston said he was "taking responsibility" following this summer's Sats fiasco, which left thousands of children without their exam results.
His resignation comes just days before an independent inquiry into what went wrong is due to be published.His resignation comes just days before an independent inquiry into what went wrong is due to be published.
The National Assessment Agency, part of the QCA, is responsible for the national curriculum tests in England.The National Assessment Agency, part of the QCA, is responsible for the national curriculum tests in England.
Delivery failure
All children in England sit the exams at the end of "key stages" in their schooling, aged 7, 11 and 14.
This year's results were due out before the children left school but they were delayed for a number of reasons.
The US contractor responsible for the marking, Educational Testing Services or ETS, was sacked in August and has since been fined £19.5m.
The tests fiasco last summer was a major failure, and he [Ken Boston] should have resigned at the time Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools
The inquiry into the fiasco was carried out by former Ofsted chief inspector, Lord Sutherland, and it is due to be published on Tuesday.
In a statement, Dr Boston said: "I have reflected since the summer on the delivery failure and on the difficulties associated with key stage testing.
"In my 40-year career as a public servant, I have always believed in public bodies and public officials taking responsibility when things go wrong."
He added it would in the authority's interests "to find new leadership" and repeated his apology to pupils, teachers and parents.
Unmanageable system
Teachers and lecturers' leaders rallied to support Dr Boston.
Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that the crisis had not been the departing QCA head's fault.
"We have a government system of testing and exams in England, which Mr Boston described soon after his arrival as a cottage industry and I think it's still his belief that it's a cottage industry in severe need of reform," he said.
"But that's a political question, the reform of testing, not a question for Ken Boston of the QCA. He's done a really good job. He's taken the work of the QCA to new levels".
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said Dr Boston had been a victim of "the government's policy on testing and assessment."
"It's a real blow for Ken Boston to go," she said.
"He was independent [and] set up a sensible curriculum and assessment policy. He has been the victim of an entirely unviable, unwieldy and unmanageable system."
But the former chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, told the BBC he should have resigned earlier.
"The tests fiasco last summer was a major failure, and he together with his own chairman should have resigned at the time," he said.
"But I have to say his departure solves nothing. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has become a bloated irrelevance."