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Exam head quits over Sats fiasco Exam head quits over Sats fiasco
(10 minutes later)
The head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has resigned from his post. The head of the exams watchdog in England has resigned over the Sats test fiasco.
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, head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, has stepped down ahead of a report into this summer's test chaos.
His resignation comes just days before an independent inquiry into what went wrong is due to be published. Hundreds of thousands of pupils had delayed test results - and this year's league tables have been postponed.
The National Assessment Agency, part of the QCA, is responsible for the national curriculum tests in England. Dr Boston said his resignation follows the "delivery failure" for this year's tests.
Delivery failure "I have always believed in public bodies and public officials taking responsibility when things go wrong," said Dr Boston, who has held the post since 2002.
All children in England sit the exams at the end of "key stages" in their schooling, aged 7 and 11. Heads rolling
This year's results were due out before the children left school but they were delayed for a number of reasons. On Tuesday, Lord Sutherland is due to publish the findings of his inquiry into what caused the delays and confusion with the tests taken by 11 and 14 year olds.
The US contractor responsible for the marking, Educational Testing Services or ETS, was sacked in August and has since been fined £19.5m. The exam chief is the latest casualty of the administrative failures that affected primary and secondary school tests.
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 ETS Europe, the private outsourcing company hired to adminster the tests has seen its contract terminated.
The inquiry into the fiasco was carried out by former Ofsted chief inspector, Lord Sutherland, and it is due to be published on Tuesday. Half of the tests themselves are being scrapped - with the Children's Secretary Ed Balls having announced in October that there will be no more compulsory Sats tests for 14 year olds.
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. If Lord Sutherland produces a damning report into what the government calls "severe problems" with the tests, then it could raise the prospect of further heads rolling.
"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." The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and its testing arm, the National Assessment Agency, were responsible for hiring the US-owned contractor.
He added it would in the authority's interests "to find new leadership" and repeated his apology to pupils, teachers and parents. Lord Sutherland's report will seek to establish what caused the problems that saw so much confusion over the tests - and why it appeared to take so long for a response.
Unmanageable system 'Shambles'
Teachers and lecturers' leaders rallied to support Dr Boston. Head teachers, teachers and markers had been warning of problems with the organization of this year's test from the spring.
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. In May, MPs in the House of Commons had said the tests had become a "shambles" - long before the scheduled results date in July.
"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. Following the missed deadlines, Dr Boston appeared before a committee of MPs in July and assured them that all the tests taken by 11 year olds had been marked.
"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". However a photograph sent soon after to the BBC News website showed boxes of unmarked test papers still lying uncollected in a Lancashire primary school - prompting accusations from opposition parties that the test authorities had lost control.
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." Australian-born Dr Boston had faced intense pressure in the wake of the test problems.
"It's a real blow for Ken Boston to go," she said. But his decision to quit ahead of the inquiry report has been regretted by teachers' leaders.
"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." 'Victim'
But the former chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, told the BBC he should have resigned earlier. "It is a tragedy for the education system that Ken Boston has felt it necessary to resign," said John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.
"The tests fiasco last summer was a major failure, and he together with his own chairman should have resigned at the time," he said. "He has consistently spoken out about the shortcomings of the bloated testing and examinations system in England, describing it as a 'cottage industry'."
"But I have to say his departure solves nothing. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has become a bloated irrelevance." The acting leader of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, said that Dr Boston had been the "victim of an entirely unviable, unwieldy and unmanageable system".
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Family said that it would be "inappropriate for ministers to comment on any issues related to the summer's delays until the Sutherland report is published".