Sats 'set to be scrapped next year'

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Mr Balls said that the system of national tests taken by around one million children aged seven, 11 and 14 across England each May was "not set in stone" and may be replaced by assessments tailored to each child's ability level.

He acknowledged that the marking of this year's Sats was a "fiasco", after private contractors ETS Europe failed to get the papers in English, maths and science marked in time.

ETS were dumped from their five-year contract in August, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has announced that the next contract will be for one year only, sparking speculation that Sats are in line for the chop.

Mr Balls told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "The current system is not set in stone. We are looking currently at a way in which we could assess progress child by child with individual level tests where the tests would be chosen in a way which was right for the child, rather than everybody doing the same test on the same day.

"For 2009, we are going to do the same kind of tests as in previous years before the problems with ETS, but for the long term I am really keen to get this right, to listen."

As with music examinations, where pupils sit grade tests when they have reached a certain stage of attainment, level tests would allow teachers to put children in for exams which reflect their personal progress, he said.

But he indicated that the new exams will still be marked externally, rather than within the child's own school, at least for pupils reaching the end of primary education.

"I think it is important to have external marking, at Key Stage 2 certainly," said Mr Balls.

"It is important that we have that objectivity for parents. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and go back to the old days where we didn't have the information."