Sats fiasco agency staff will still get their bonuses

OFFICIALS at the Government agency that oversaw this year's Sats fiasco have been awarded thousands of pounds in bonuses, it was revealed today.

The National Assessment Agency (NAA), a division of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), appointed private contractor ETS Europe to mark the papers in English, maths and science .

But thousands of scripts went missing or were sent to the wrong place. Problems like these delayed the results of more than a million pupils.

Yet 104 NAA staff will get bonuses next month, the Times Educational Supplement (TES) reported today. The payments range from £512.50 to £3,905.

Sixty-nine of the NAA's 105 staff were graded "more than effective" in appraisals, the TES said, which earned a bonus worth 5.5 per cent of their salary.

Thirty-five were deemed "effective", giving them a 3.5 per cent bonus. Only one was "less than effective".

A QCA spokesman said the payment was for the year April 2007-March 2008: "It relates to the 2007 test cycle, which was delivered successfully.

"All bonus payments are linked to the meeting of specific performance objectives set for each individual. A large number of NAA staff work on programmes unrelated to the delivery of national curriculum tests."