By Lucy Phillips
11 May 2010
Teaching unions are calling on the new government to scrap Standard Assessment Tests for 10 and 11 year-olds following a boycott of the tests this week.
Members of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers refused to administer the Key Stage Two tests in England after a ballot last month. The unions claimed the tests undermine the education system and threaten teachers’ jobs when they are ‘misused to compile meaningless league tables’.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: ‘I urge the next government to pay immediate and serious attention to the matter of ensuring our schools have a fair and sensible alternative to Sats in place for next year.’
The unions estimate that ‘thousands’ of the nation’s 17,000 primary schools are taking part in the boycott, with 50% participation in many areas and above that in some places. ‘It’s enough to make the production of league tables quite difficult,’ a spokeswoman from the NUT said.
NAHT general secretary Mick Brookes told Public Finance there appeared to be more support for the industrial action in urban areas, where schools ‘suffered most from disinformation given by league tables and feel this very sharply’.
He added: ‘As the current system is clearly damaging the education of children then why would any government persist with that? Let’s have a moratorium on this testing until we have a better system in place.’
Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have pledged to reform the tests, while Labour has said they are ‘not set in stone’.
The full impact of the boycott will not be known until the summer when SATs results are published.
11 May 2010
Teaching unions are calling on the new government to scrap Standard Assessment Tests for 10 and 11 year-olds following a boycott of the tests this week.
Members of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers refused to administer the Key Stage Two tests in England after a ballot last month. The unions claimed the tests undermine the education system and threaten teachers’ jobs when they are ‘misused to compile meaningless league tables’.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: ‘I urge the next government to pay immediate and serious attention to the matter of ensuring our schools have a fair and sensible alternative to Sats in place for next year.’
The unions estimate that ‘thousands’ of the nation’s 17,000 primary schools are taking part in the boycott, with 50% participation in many areas and above that in some places. ‘It’s enough to make the production of league tables quite difficult,’ a spokeswoman from the NUT said.
NAHT general secretary Mick Brookes told Public Finance there appeared to be more support for the industrial action in urban areas, where schools ‘suffered most from disinformation given by league tables and feel this very sharply’.
He added: ‘As the current system is clearly damaging the education of children then why would any government persist with that? Let’s have a moratorium on this testing until we have a better system in place.’
Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have pledged to reform the tests, while Labour has said they are ‘not set in stone’.
The full impact of the boycott will not be known until the summer when SATs results are published.
