The next key stage in the SATS debacle

Verity

Every single thing this government essays ends in abject failure that is so slapstick that it would be funny did it not affect so many lives. They are a role model for aspirant incompetents everywhere.

Silent Hunter

Why are we surprised, after 11 years of Labour incompetence.

Time to get rid of them before they inflict yet more damage on our society.

They really are utterly useless!

mckenzie

There is psychology going on with this man and his name. You can see it in his eyes, he lives in perpetual fear of making a balls of things: so he tries too hard, and bosh! He makes a balls of things.

Fred

Hopefully this will destroy the testing and league tables. Losing Balls would be a bonus. But NuLabour have got away with publishing rubbish before and Blair and Brown never resigned.

Marian C

This is an absolute disgrace; heads should roll for this. The chap (can't remember his name)who claimed that 100% of the SAT test had been marked should be sacked with immediate effect!!!

This government is totally useless, and as for Ed Balls......I can't wait for the GE to get rid of these prize chumps

Travis Bickle

Good performance by Michael Gove this morning on BBC Radio 4, incredibly the interviewer (Sara Montague I think) tried to suggest that it didn't really matter if marks were in error at age 11..

Tankus

Balls on channel 4 news tonight , in essence , not me guv , I'm only the minister ...

Blears, Balls, Flints ,Milibands et all , ......whats the point anymore !

Has this country ever had such a mickey mouse cabinet ?

Sam

Now, we must remember that ETS, the *American* company entrusted with the contract for this year's SATs grading, was only allowed a look in because of EU regulations. The regulations allowed for a closed bid and the lowest bidder wins. Nothing to do with, say, competence or familiarity with the system? No. I certainly didn't vote for that, did you? There's more than Balls cocking things up, that's for sure!

Michael

Michael Barber's book 'Instruction to deliver' has been widely recommended by policy wonks such as John Rentoul and Danny Finklestein as a valuable insight into the business of Government. I read it and was horrified - ironically education was seen as a highlight of Govt. management. This is yet another nail in the coffin of our monolithic, incompetent State. Yesterday I was at a presenation about the Government's policies for the 'Innovation nation', 'University Challenge (a university in evry town!)', 'Sector Skills Councils' etc etc. When I probed examples of their real life relevance or contribution to the business world, the silence from the presenters was deafening - though it is a great earner for our useless highly paid quangocracy. I truly hope it is over for them all - we demand smaller government!

JohnA

The current government abominates the 11 plus system that led to so many working class children getting a secondary and university education that matched their ability and application, in schools anywhere in a city or county that was at all reachable by public transport - but instead the government has set up this SATS thingy that seems - to judge by the hooha when the marking goes wrong - to be as challenging and even more vital than the 11 plus (which was after all not the end for a hardworking child who could move to grammar school after a couple of years.) But when I look, it turns out that the reason why the government deems SATS to be utterly vital is not because they enable the kids who've taken these competitive exams to get anywhere, but because they enable the schools to er, grade...themselves. What? So as to attract parents who 'want the best' for their children and will be forced to move house or pretend the kid lives with granny, just to get into a school where the teaching and intake is halfway intelligent?
And this is PROGRESS??

Silent Hunter

The latest has it that the American Company awarded the £160 odd million for the contract by Mr Complete Balls Up, is now employing 'teenagers' who have just sat their 'A' levels in an effort to 'speed up' the marking process.

You really couldn't make this stuff up! LOL

Honestly people! Just think what damage Labour can do if left in power for another two years.

THEY HAVE GOT TO GO......AND SOONER THAN 2010!

Trumpeter Lanfried

This country now enjoys third-world standards of public administration.

John

Any chance of the scumballs resigning or being sacked? Oops, forgot, this is ZanuLabour.

Roger Thornhill

Maybe they should have looked at one of their own questions:

"If it takes an examiner 43 minutes to mark a paper and each examiner is only able to work 7 hours a day, how many examiners will it take to mark 154,492 papers on time?"

Peter Tallon

In a sense the marks don't matter to any child of any age. The tests are not public exams. There's no qualification, no certificate, nothing like that. But, of course, the children have been conned into believing that the tests are "SATs" (really, they're nothing of the kind) and into believing that that's why they've been studying. So, accurate results do matter to them.

So, yes, it's a very bad show indeed - but it's a pity that teachers are not allowed to tell their pupils the truth about the tests and the so-called "league" tables which frighten Headteachers into scaring the youngsters.

Fergus Pickering

But it goes further than that. SATS dont matter, sure. But A levels don't matter either because soon everybody will get an A, and degrees don't matter because 87 per cent of people get a first class degree or a 2:1 degree and nobody, absolutely nobody, fails. In Kent where we have GRAMMAR SCHOOLS the kids don't care about SATS at all. In fact Ihad to be reminded that my two had ever taken the things. Do any tests matter? Yes, the Driving Test matters a lot.

mitch

The gossip at my wife's school is this will be used as an excuse to effectively abolish the useless SATs.

RM

How CAN Ed Balls distance himself from this? Only if he moves to a parallel universe! He's meant to be the Minister in charge of it all. Re 'a university in every town' - how about making sure that the kids leaving school can at least read & write - which they currently can't after 11 years of New Labour's Education policies.

Silent Hunter

Fergus Pickering:

Great name BTW! :O)

You're absolutely right!

The New Labour mantra in education is......

"All must have prizes"

It's from that well known book by Gordon Brown..........

"Labour in LaLa Land"

Peter T

What follows is pedantic, perhaps, but then I'm an assessor for English and I'm paid to know and apply this sort of thing.

"SATs" is the brand name for a type of university entrance test. It would be foolish, if not illegal to copy the name for another brand. The tests are not "Sats", either.

The mistaken name came about because when the tests came in, some people had heard of standard assessment tasks (which had already been abolished) and guessed that that was what the tests were.

Silent Hunter

Peter T:

"...and guessed that that was what the tests were...."

Is that not a rather clumsy sentence structure for an 'assessor of English'? :O)

Peter T

If you pronounce it correctly, it's fine. Nothing wrong with the grammar but it would sound awkward if you pronounced the two "thats" in the same way.
;)

Silent Hunter

Really?

I would have thought that...

"....some people had heard of standard assessment tasks and presumed that they were one and the same....."

scans better.

But my pal Yoda otherwise thinks he does...oh yes! ;O)