"Scrap school tests" call after UK results delay

By Tim Castle LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The British government faced calls on Friday to scrap national testing of 14 year-olds in England as it was announced that nearly three out of ten pupils would not receive results for English by the end of term. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has already ordered an inquiry into "unacceptable" delays in the marking of this year's exams for 11 and 14-year-olds. Concern has also been raised about the quality of the marking, conducted for the first time this year by ETS Europe, an educational testing company, with some schools saying pupils who had taken the exams had been marked down as absent. ETS published Key Stage 3 results online for 14-year-olds on Friday, the last day of term for many secondary schools. It said results were available for 93 percent of maths exams, 91 percent of science... [read full story]