---

Education: National Curriculum Tests

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Balls) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. Yesterday, I wrote to the chair of the DCSF Select Committee to update him on the position with the return of national curriculum test results to schools, placing a copy of the letter in the Libraries of both Houses. Further results have been released to schools by ETS Europe this morning, taking the total of scripts marked and released to over 98 per cent of marks at key stage 2 and some 88 per cent in key stage 3 —94.1 per cent in maths, 93.4 per cent in science and 76.9 per cent in English. The QCA confirmed in a statement over the weekend that it is in discussions with ETS Europe following the unacceptable delays in delivering this year’s national curriculum test results. These discussions are highly sensitive—legally and financially—and, as I set out to the House yesterday, it is very important that the QCA should be allowed to conclude them in a timely and orderly fashion in order to safeguard the interests of pupils, schools and taxpayers. Ministerial intervention, at this stage, would be totally inappropriate and would jeopardise the public interest. I shall continue to update Parliament regularly over the coming weeks on progress with release of results and Ofqual’s work on marking quality. I will write regularly with an update to the chair of the Select Committee, copying the letter to opposition spokespeople and the Speaker and placing a copy of the letter in the Libraries of both Houses. At the same time, and following my oral report to the Select Committee last week, Lord Sutherland has started work on his independent inquiry and will be collecting evidence in August and September before reporting publicly (when the House returns) in the autumn.