Tour de France: Ricco wins ninth stage, Kirchen retains yellow ...
Ricco wins ninth stage, Kirchen retains yellow ... Exams authority the QCA has ended its contract with exams administrator ETS Europe after this summer's marking controversy.

Problems with the marking of national test results, or Sats, for England's 11 and 14 year olds have delayed results and prompted concerns about quality.

ETS is to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. The total contract for 2008 was worth £39.6m.

The QCA said the five-year contract was ended by "mutual consent".

Problems with the summer's marking schedule first emerged when Education Secretary Ed Balls announced that Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 results were to be delayed.

But markers had been warning of problems with the administration of the tests for some time.

Ministers then announced an independent inquiry headed by Lord Sutherland, who was to examine issues surrounding the delivery of the tests. This inquiry will continue.

As it stands some 95% of Key Stage 3 results have been delivered to schools. This breaks down as 92.8% of English, 96.6% of maths and 96% of science results returned.

The figures for Key Stage 2 are higher, with 99% of results being returned as of 31 July. However, it is not clear what proportion of schools are still missing some results.

(BBC)

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