Exam board sends A-level scripts to wrong address

Britain's biggest exam board sent 140 unmarked A-level scripts to the wrong address only days before the deadline to have the papers returned.

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) sent the information technology scripts to the home of Marc Patterson in Pittington, Co Durham, rather than to the examiner designated to mark them. The latest blunder infuriated teachers' leaders, who said the continuing errors highlighted the enormous pressure on the exam system and the lack of quality control.

A spokesman for the board blamed "human error" for the mistake and promised that the papers would be marked in time for candidates to receive their grades next Thursday.

George Turnbull, an AQA spokesman, said the papers had been collected "immediately" once the board realised they had been sent to the wrong address. The error comes a fortnight after the same board lost more than 200 national curriculum exam scripts in the post. The test papers, sat by pupils aged 13 and 14 at The Gilberd School, Colchester, Essex, vanished after being sent to a teacher for marking.

Another exam board, OCR, admitted last month that almost 300 AS-level sociology scripts had been destroyed by a householder when they were sent to his home by mistake.

Sheila Dainton, education policy officer at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "It beggars belief that these things are allowed to happen when quality control systems are supposed to be in place. There are genuine fears that the system is going to collapse under the burgeoning number of exams."

Bob Carstairs, assistant general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: "This is yet another indication that the plethora of exams is not being coped with by the exam boards.

"Inevitably, children and their parents as well as their schools will be bitterly disappointed that such maladministration is still taking place."

Mr Turnbull said the board had launched an investigation into the error.

He said: "It seems the address wasn't as accurate as it should be. Whether that was the examiner not informing us of a change of address is something we will look into. These things happen in any organisation of this size from time to time. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."