Thousands of children who took national tests in English, maths and science this summer may not find out their marks before the end of term due to "unacceptable" marking delays.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls admitted today that problems with ETS Europe, the company marking the tests taken in May by 11 and 14 year olds, meant some schools could wait weeks for the SATs results.

A furious Mr Balls announced an inquiry into what went wrong at ETS Europe and the National Assessment Agency, the government regulator responsible for the tests.

Examiners have been warning for weeks that ETS was hopelessly behind schedule.

Mr Balls said that while 90 per cent of marking of 11-year-olds' tests was complete, results would not be issued until 15 July, a week late. But the 14-year-olds' results are further behind. They will be released by 18 July to "as many schools as possible" - but many may not even know pupils' scores until the autumn term.

In 2004, English results for 14-yearolds were issued three months late.

The NAA said: "This is a serious failure by ETS Europe for which we apologise to schools, pupils and parents".

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the testing regime was "unmanageable". He called for tests at 14 to be scrapped.

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