The company at the centre of the school-testing fiasco has been barred from overseeing the re-marking of papers.

Thousands of children are still awaiting the return of national curriculum tests that were supposed to arrive three weeks ago. Schools have questioned the quality of marking on those that have arrived, and many are sending them back because they claim the marking is erratic or wrong. The number of appeals is expected to soar.

The announcement has prompted renewed calls for the sacking of ETS, which has a £156 million, five-year contract to administer the Key Stage 2 and 3 tests. The chaos surrounding the marking of the tests taken by 11 and 14-year-olds provoked complaints from teachers, markers and politicians. ETS had to set up emergency centres at hotels where markers worked long shifts to clear the backlog.

When they began investigating, officials found 10,000 unanswered e-mails, and had to set up and staff a call centre to deal with complaints.

Yesterday the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority announced that responsibility for re-marking the tests had been removed from ETS, and would be overseen by the National Assessment Agency, a division of the authority. A spokesman said: “Schools that request reviews can be reassured that any material sent will be redirected to NAA. Individual markers who have been engaged by ETS for the review process will be contacted directly by the NAA within the next few days to make transitional arrangements.”

The deadline has been extended; schools will have until September 10 to send back papers for re-marking.

John Bangs, of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This is a massive vote of no confidence in ETS. They can’t even be trusted with re-marking.

“This is also the first time a government agency has indicated, tacitly, that there’s a question over the quality of marking. They wouldn’t take away re-marking if they didn’t have anxiety about the quality of it.”

David Laws, for the Liberal Democrats, said that the move demonstrated “the implosion of confidence” in ETS’s competence. “The next step must be to cancel ETS’s five-year contract and to ensure that not a penny of public money is paid to ETS for the shambolic management of this year’s exams. The Government must also waive the re-marking costs to schools,” he said.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, has declined to apologise for the fiasco, instead expressing anger and frustration. Lord Sutherland of Houndwood is to conduct an independent inquiry.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We welcome the announcement from the QCA that, following unacceptable delays in delivering national curriculum test results, the National Assessment Agency will take over management of the reviews process. Last week the QCA confirmed that they are in discussions with ETS Europe. It is important that the QCA should be able to conclude these discussions in a timely and orderly fashion to safeguard the interests of pupils, schools and taxpayers.”

In a statement, ETS said: “ETS are committed to quality marking and results, regardless of who undertakes the review. ETS welcomes the inquiry.”

— More than a hundred schools will offer a new English version of the International Baccalaureate from September. Pupils taking the course will still take at least three A levels but will also do an exam in critical thinking, citizenship or general studies. They will write a dissertation on a project using their own research and do work experience or community work.

Mike Cresswell, director-general of AQA, which is offering the qualification, said: “The AQA Bacc, which has A levels at its core, recognises students’ achievements in academic study, wider learning and personal development.”

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