Balls: Don't blame me for Sats chaos
BESIEGED minister Ed Balls was last night still refusing to apologise for the school exams fiasco after being dragged to the House of Commons to explain his role in the chaos.
Furious MPs from all sides demanded to know why tens of thousands of pupils had still not received their Sats marks.
A quarter of English tests for 14-year-olds has still not been marked by the Government’s contractor ETS two weeks after they were due to be finished.
Teachers have claimed that many marks they have received are unjustified, with reports of untrained staff checking papers.
But Mr Balls, the Schools Secretary, could only claim he was not responsible for the disaster, adding that advice from lawyers meant he was unable to say more.
He also provoked scorn by insisting the situation was no worse than in previous years.
Fiery exchanges in the Commons over the debacle came amid fresh chaos. Teachers in Schools Minister Jim Knight’s own constituency in Dorset said they now feared that exam papers for 11-year-olds had been lost by the US firm responsible for marking.
The Secretary of State calls this situation unacceptable
Shadow Children Secretary Michael Gove led the attack on Mr Balls.
He told MPs: “The marking itself has been chaotic, with reports of cocktail waitresses being approached to help meet deadlines. Papers of widely differing quality have been given the same mark.
“Headmasters have said confidence in the Government’s own testing system has collapsed.
“The Secretary of State rightly calls this situation unacceptable. But what parents and teachers want to know is, will he take responsibility?”
Fellow Tory Mark Francois told Mr Balls: “It happened on your watch and ultimately the buck rests with you and no one else.”
Liberal Democrat David Heath said the best way forward would be to declare this year’s Sats results “null and void”.
