School gate blog: does anyone come out of the SATS fiasco well?

Ed Balls was accused today of "sexing up" his evidence to the inquiry into last summer's school tests fiasco and seeking to dodge blame for the debacle.

The Schools Secretary not only presented "untrue evidence" to the inquiry but deliberately limited its remit, to protect himself and his department from criticism for their part in it, according to the former head of the exams agency.

Delays and problems with marking led to 1.2 million national curriculum test scripts being delivered late to children and thousands of papers going missing.

Ken Boston, who resigned from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) after being severely criticised for the failures, told MPs that ministers had diverted blame on to him.

Dr Boston said that while he was willing to accept responsibility for his part in the failures, he was unhappy with the way he had been portrayed by ministers.

"What I resent is the evidence against me being 'sexed up' in the report to Lord Sutherland, on the basis of evidence given by ministers, to characterise me as something I am not,” he told the Schools Select Committee.

Dr Boston said that the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was involved closely in deciding how SATs were set up and marked. Mr Balls had deliberately limited the terms of reference for Lord Sutherland’s inquiry to ensure that blame was heaped instead on the QCA and its contractor, ETS Europe, he said.

Excluding the DCSF from the inquiry had effectively exonorated the department, Dr Boston said – even though it was responsible for determining the nature of the tests; the pupils who would sit them; the subjects to be tested; the budget for marking; the interval before results are delivered; the methods for marking; and how results are returned to schools.

“In these core elements of test development and delivery, neither the QCA nor the supplier has any discretion,” Dr Boston said.

“Decisions are made by government alone. The development and delivery of these tests is not at arm’s length from government. Ministers and officials are at arm’s length only from the detail of the test questions and the marking and level setting.”

By requiring Lord Sutherland to report directly to him rather than to Parliament, Mr Balls had undermined the independence of the watchdog Ofqual, he said.

Mr Balls had seen him as "a troublesome priest", and had used the problems with the tests as an excuse to get rid of him, and "sexed up the issue" to make him a scapegoat.

He listed what he claimed were inaccuracies in ministers' evidence to the inquiry.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, had stated wrongly that Dr Boston was present at a meeting last June when the SATs tests were discussed, he said. Ministers had claimed that they had pressed Dr Boston for answers before the fiasco unfolded, and that the QCA had given strong reassurances that the tests were on track. "This too is a fiction," Dr Boston said.

The DCSF said this morning that it had alerted Lord Sutherland two months ago that Mr Knight had made a mistake over the June meeting. Dr Boston said that he was not made aware of this correction until 2am today and accused ministers of sneaking it out ahead of the evidence session today.

He told MPs that ministers’ evidence to the inquiry was incorrect and unsound and that any correction raised more questions than it answered.

He pointed out that Lord Sutherland’s key recommendation, that SATs should be marked on screen rather than paper, was made by the QCA four years ago, but that ministers had insisted on continuing with manual processing of papers

Opposition parties said that Mr Balls should explain himself.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: “Ken Boston’s evidence to the select committee casts serious doubt on the account of the SATs fiasco which has been given by Ed Balls. It is extraordinary that he appears to be accusing the Secretary of State of being untruthful in the House of Commons – an extremely serious charge.

“Ed Balls should now make a statement to the House of Commons to explain the difference between his account of what happened [and what] we have heard from Ken Boston.”

Barry Sheerman, the committee chairman, asked Dr Boston to write a report on the future of testing for the committee's deliberation.

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