Search: Sats marking delays
Marking of Sats tests taken by primary school children across England has hit a hitch, with dozens of experienced markers stopped from checking papers, it has been revealed.
Additional markers have been recruited to help speed up the process and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said everything is being done to ensure results are delivered to schools by the July 7 deadline.
The problem will evoke memories of the chaos surrounding last year's tests, when many results were delayed until after the end of summer term.
Contractors ETS Europe got the sack over that fiasco, and a review was critical of the QCA and led to the scrapping of Sats for 14-year-olds.
Exam board Edexcel was recruited to mark the tests in English, maths and science taken by around 600,000 10 and 11-year-olds last month. The changeover of contractors has put additional pressure on the process, which operates within a tight seven-week timeframe between tests and results.
After marking had begun this year, the markers themselves were checked by being asked to grade dummy scripts provided by the QCA.
But flaws in the checks led to experienced and trusted markers being rejected for awarding inaccurate grades on English papers and told they could take no further part in this year's process.
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Many of them are now being reassessed to see if they can continue marking, and 200 markers were recruited last week as a "reserve" which can be drawn upon if required to fill a shortfall.
The QCA said that marker recruitment would continue throughout the test cycle in order to ensure it can meet any "contingencies". Plans are also in place to ask existing markers to handle more papers or to set up a central marking panel if the process falls behind schedule.
A QCA spokesman said: "Marking is well under way and we are working hard to deliver results on time. We have had some quality assurance issues with English papers, but these are now being addressed and marking of these continue. We are recruiting additional markers throughout the test cycle and also have a number of contingency plans in place to increase the marking workforce if necessary."
