Minister faces Sats fiasco grilling

12 April 2012

Schools Secretary Ed Balls is due to face intense pressure from MPs over accusations that ministers "misled" Parliament and an inquiry into the Sats fiasco.

Dr Ken Boston, the former chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said last week that he had been misrepresented by ministers.

He accused them of "sexing up" evidence given to Lord Sutherland's official inquiry into the delays.

He told a Commons Schools Select Committee that schools minister Jim Knight wrongly claimed he was present at one meeting last June to discuss the Sats tests when he had not even been invited.

And he challenged the inquiry's finding - read out by Mr Balls in the Commons - that ministers had "pressed" him for answers about the problems.

Dr Boston said this was "fiction".

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has said Mr Knight has already written to Lord Sutherland acknowledging that he had made an "error" over the June meeting, and that Lord Sutherland had indicated this made no difference to the outcome of the inquiry.

Mr Balls is likely to face a grilling from opposition MPs in the Commons over Dr Boston's claims during his monthly oral parliamentary questions session.

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove has already called on Mr Balls to explain himself to MPs.

More than a million schoolchildren were affected by last summer's fiasco which saw the results of tests taken by 11 and 14-year-olds in English, maths and science delayed due to administrative problems.

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