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Three schools hit by exam marking crisis

Katie Fitzpatrick
30/ 7/2008

ONE hundred and fifty primary school leavers started their summer holidays without crucial Key Stage Two English test results.

Three primary schools in the borough were hit by this summer’s Sats marking fiasco when they ended the term without knowing the results of the tests taken in May.

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen said: "Three sets of results outstanding in Rochdale is three sets too many. I hope this can be sorted out as soon as possible.

"This is not a reflection on the education authority, it is a problem caused by government policy."

Last week Mr Rowen challenged schools minister Ed Balls in the Commons about the problem, which saw thousands of 11-year-olds across the country finish primary school without knowing results in English, maths and science.

Mr Rowen, a former deputy headteacher, spoke in the Commons of ‘serious concerns’ over the standard of marking and questioned Mr Balls’ assertion that the quality of marking was ‘at least as high as in previous years’.

He said the fiasco is ‘wholly unacceptable and unprecedented’ and has been ‘a worrying time for both pupils and their parents’.

And he also urged the government to scrap Sats and invest the money on identifying and addressing educational failures in infant and primary schools.

Mr Balls replied: "As I have said already, the answer is that Ofqual, the independent regulator in these matters, wrote to me on 4 July to say that, in its judgment and according to the information that it had so far, the quality of marking was at least as high as in previous years.

"If there is evidence of a problem with the quality of marking, Ofqual will act and also advise me, but that is not where we are today, and nor is it the advice that we are receiving."

Education director Terry Piggott says this is the first time Rochdale had been affected by such problems.

But he added it should not have an impact on the town’s overall results, which are expected to have risen in all three subjects when released next month.

Last week we revealed that St Peter’s Primary School had demanded a re-mark over its Year 6 pupils’ English exam papers in protest over an ‘unacceptable standard of marking’.

Headteacher Jan O’Neil refused to accept the marking of the English exam and sent the papers back to the firm responsible. She said children who had performed well were given the same or lower marks as those who hadn’t performed as well.