Ed Balls' letter about testing and assessment

11 March 2010

Commenting on Ed Balls' letter to primary school head teachers, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said;

"The one new proposal in Ed Balls' letter is, remarkably, to increase the malign effect of school performance tables by creating a separate table for teacher assessment results. The damage caused by the pressure to teach to the test will now be added to by pressure to enhance teacher assessment results for league table purposes.

"I do not think that any head teacher in a primary school will find that attractive, or in any way think that this is an encouragement for the NUT or the NAHT to call off their campaign against the current national curriculum testing structure.

"If Ed Balls seriously wants to resolve our issues, he needs to look at the impact of the current assessment structure on children, parents and teachers and ask himself whether this is the best way of motivating pupils and teachers.

"In short, a rehash mixed with exhortation and the proposal to create expanded league tables hardly represents new and fresh proposals on the table".