16 May 2008
The government stands alone in its faith in the national pupil testing regime, teachers' leaders said this week after MPs called for the system to be urgently reformed.
The children, schools and families select committee said inappropriate use of national testing could be damaging to the education system and to children. Its May 13 report criticised an overemphasis on national tests.
This led to a narrow focus on the parts of the curriculum likely to be tested and on the pupils most likely to help schools meet government targets.
Committee chair Barry Sheerman said: 'In an effort to drive up national standards, too much emphasis has been placed on a single set of tests and this has been to the detriment of some aspects of the curriculum and some students.
'The committee would like to see teachers focus less on test results and corresponding league tables and more on personalised learning.'
The committee joins a growing number of critics of the system, including teaching unions and independent schools. Earlier this month, two leading independent schools announced that they would refuse to submit their exam results for publication in league table form.
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: 'The government now stands isolated on the future of national curriculum testing. It has steadfastly resisted mounting evidence of the damage caused by tests to the curriculum and children's learning.
'We have now in England an enormous, oppressive and contradictory edifice for school accountability which stifles initiative and creativity in schools.'
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, added: 'The government should finally accept that enough is enough. The current testing of children is damaging their education and demoralising teachers.'
She agreed with the committee that teacher assessment should be given a far greater role in monitoring pupil progress and called for this to be piloted.
But schools minister Jim Knight said that testing did not distort pupils' education. 'National tests show consistent improvements in standards over time, and these map on to higher results at GCSE and A-level. This would not be the case if children were simply taught to pass tests.
'Parents and the public can have confidence in the independent authorities who watch over the system,' he said.
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