Chaotic Sats face the axe

The future of school Sats was plunged into chaos today as the firm at the centre of this year's marking fiasco was axed.

ETS Europe's five-year £156 million contract was terminated after a string of blunders delayed results for 1.2 million children.

But headteachers warned that even without ETS in charge, it will be "a tall order" to make sure next year's Sats go ahead as planned. The announcement came as thousands of 11- and 14-year-olds were still waiting to learn their grades.

Marking of tests taken by tens of thousands of pupils is still going on - more than five weeks after the results were due.

The decision to scrap the contract was said to have been reached "by mutual agreement" between ETS Europe and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority testing quango but ETS will pay back £24.1million out of the £39.6million it was due to receive for this year's work.

Schools welcomed the end of the ETS contract but warned the decision leaves nine months to hire a new company and train markers before children are due to sit next year's tests.

John Dunford, from the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "It is essential that the problems of this summer are addressed before the start of the exam season next spring and this will be a very tall order.

"Many markers have lost confidence in the system and, even with ETS out of the picture, it will be difficult to deliver a wholly successful system in 2009." In the long term, the testing system should be radically cut back, Mr Dunford said.

A string of problems affected the marking of the crucial tests this year, delaying key English, maths and science results for 11- and 14-year-olds across the country.

Some markers never received scripts, computer problems disrupted an electronic results service and teachers lost confidence in the marking.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority will now invite other exam boards to take over Sats for next year. But the biggest board, AQA, said today it would not be bidding for the contract.

One other board, OCR, has reportedly also decided against taking over, although the group would not comment today. Edexcel, the third major exam board, said it was "willing to provide any support" to the QCA but would not say directly whether it will bid for next year's contract.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said the decision to end the deal with ETS meant the firm "will now repay a very substantial part of the fee they were expecting".

The Conservatives said the termination of the deal was "long overdue". Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "Ministers bear direct responsibility for signing up with a firm that let down children and teachers so badly.

"We are glad that sense has prevailed and hope that ministers can now get their act together to make sure there is not a repeat of this fiasco next year."

The QCA said ETS had been chosen because of its "worldwide experience" running tests.

The company said it still believed the quality of this year's marking was high. Zoubir Yazid, managing director of ETS Global BV, said: "ETS Europe has apologised to schools for the delays in marking national curriculum assessments in England. We are dedicated to assuring quality and equity for all pupils, and we are sorry that the results this summer were delayed for some schools.

"However, we would argue that the quality of the marking is high, due to the stringent new checks that we introduced this year."