Pupils could be forced to wait until September for SATs after blunders

Thousands of teenagers may have to wait until September for their SATs results following further delays in the marking system, it emerged yesterday.

Some schools will receive only partial test results for 14-year-olds by the end of term following a string of administrative blunders.

The remaining papers, mainly in English, would not be available until 'well into the holidays'.

Many pupils will be forced to wait until after the summer break unless their school makes arrangements to pass them on.

Up to 30,000 primary school pupils will not get their results tomorrow as planned although they are likely to get them before they break up.

Dr Ken Boston, chief executive at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, revealed the scale of delays yesterday and warned of similar problems next year.

He appeared before the Commons schools select committee where MPs challenged him to explain the fiasco, even demanding to see a copy of his job contract to 'hold him to account'.

Dr Boston blamed major logistical 'failures' by ETS, the American company contracted to administer the Sats testing system for the first time this year.

He indicated that it faces fines of up to tens of millions of pounds - and possibly termination of its five-year £165million contract.

Dr Boston said bungles included delays in getting papers to markers, cumbersome data entry requirements, unmarked scripts being wrongly returned to schools and a failure to reply to 10,000 emails from concerned schools.

Some examiners dropped out due to the chaotic process, sparking further delays.

Dr Boston said systems could not be modernised in time for next year's tests and delays to results for 14-year-olds were likely in summer 2009.

He called for the current regime of mass testing to be scrapped as early as 2010 and replaced with a system of testing when pupils are considered ready. This is being trialled among 40,000 pupils.

The testing system 'needs modernisation', Dr Boston said. 'It's certainly under very great stress and this is a symptom of that.'

Dr Boston yesterday disclosed that while all tests for 11-year-olds had now been marked, delays in adding the results to a central database meant they would not be ready tomorrow as promised.

Some 97.3 per cent of results were ready for science and maths but only 94.4 per cent for English.

He added that not all tests for 14-year-olds had yet been marked.

'Maths and science are substantially complete,' he said.

'There is still some marking to be completed in English. The majority of results will be posted on Friday. Results for schools that do not receive English results on Friday will be posted as they become available.'

This was likely to be 'well into the holidays' for some, he added.

Dr Boston insisted the fiasco could not have been predicted and ETS 'had a very good track record' but press reports in the U.S. have detailed failings there in the administration of tests.