The full shambles of the Sats exam results meltdown across the Black Country and Staffordshire can today be revealed.
The Express & Star contacted more than 100 schools and found results were missing, delayed or riddled with mistakes, with one furious headteacher describing the level of incompetence as “breathtaking”.
The shock findings include:
* More than 70 exam papers belonging to children at Wolverhampton’s biggest primary school have been lost
* A school in Dudley sent back all its science tests as they were unmarked
* Scores of children who took the tests have been recorded by examiners as absent
* Pupils re-marking their own papers after teachers said they could “do a better job than the official markers”.
Around one in five local primary schools broke up yesterday still waiting on pupils’ all-important scores in English, maths and science.
Teachers, who are now calling for the tests to be scrapped, told how they were now facing a long summer of remarking.
Sally Lanni, head of the award-winning Villiers Primary in Bilston, said: “It is atrocious, absolutely terrible.
“It has been very stressful for all concerned and we actually believe all of our English papers have been lost.
“I called the examiners and they said they were having difficulty locating them. We have been given no advice and I just don’t know what the next step will be.”
The results, which were due to be released last week, are used by secondary schools to ensure children are in the correct classes for their ability.
Carroll McNally, headteacher at Wolverhampton’s Holy Trinity Catholic Primary, said: “The level of incompetence is breathtaking. The children were so eager to know their results - they went through their own papers with a fine-tooth comb and did a better job than the official markers.”
Dudley’s St Edmund and St John CofE School has been forced to send all of its science tests back after they were returned to the school unmarked.
This year’s papers were marked by American company ETS, which won the contract despite concerns about its performance overseas.
The Government, which has been swamped by calls for all 1.2 million tests to be remarked, has appointed Lord Sutherland to investigate.
See the Express & Star for the full report
11 Comments
id laugh if it wasnt so pathetic
Like everything else, you get what you pay for.
And they criticise teachers for their performance!
I wonder on what grounds these people will award themselves a bonus…which they will. I don’t notice any heads rolling in the Government, in spite of there being warning of this fiasco for some time. Get rid of SATS and lets get back to teaching.
This is beyond words! The children work hard for these exams.They do get upset and worried and to have them cocked up by idiots is appalling.
It extends to colleges as well.My daughter had 6 months work rammed at the back of a tutors locker along with confidential documents,letters.work from other students and we had to fight to get my daughter her sports sciences national dimplomas marked after the set period time.
Why…because the tutor had a drink problem.
Time we had a tighter rein on people who are meant to watching our childrens future development and career plans.
Selling portions of the NHS, now our education system, why dont we just sell the country ffs.
Why the hell was it done in the US anyway totally pathetic as usual
wot a dissgrase theese cildren will had lerning difikultes in there feture.
As a marker for ETS, a teacher of children taking the KS2 SATS and a parent of a child who took the KS3 SATS, can I say that the only positive thing I have to say about ETS is that they paid us very quickly! The online data entry was labourious and slow, especially at weekends when many markers were online. The benchmarking every 80 pupils was horrendous, 4 pupils papers taking over 90 mins, questions difficult if not impossible read for a start. Our schools maths papers were sent back unmarked, and retreving data has been complicated. However I would be sad if all the results were invalidated. I for one worked into the early hours for several weeks to get the papers back and results entered by the required deadlines, and I feel I marked to a high standard. It would be a double kick in the teeth for all results to be discarded.
I am a student and I can tell you that it is emotionally distressing when you have put all that work in to enable you to get the best possible result possible. And then this happens - ETS the so-called markers can’t even be bothered to make the deadline which has been set, although they have been given a contract worth so much. It is terrible at how the government can waste so much money. SATs should be national tests, marked internally by teachers. That way everything could be done in an official manner.
I would like to echo Lucy C’s sentiments. My daughter spent many hours chasing papers that were not delivered, marking papers and trying to complete on line data entry. She made daily calls regarding conectivity to the site and reporting incomplete sets of papers was fobbed off with excuses for over a week. Having said this she worked long hours to ensure that she marked all the papers she was sent and entered her results within the deadlines. The fault is with the administration not the markers! My daughter has marked sats for three years but will not be volunteering next year.
Maybe ETS’ problems occur because in America everything is multiple choice and answers are filled in on bubble sheets - all they have to do is scan the bubble sheet and a computer program marks them - not really rocket science is it. So you can see why ETS have had problems. I’m guessing they were cheaper than other companies and good old Britain thought they’d save some money - it backfired I think!!!!!!!!!!!!!