Press Release

Expert Group report on assessment

7 May 2009

Commenting on the report from the Expert Group, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe's largest teaching union, said:

"The report is fraught with contradictions; there is no logic in getting rid of Science tests for 11 year olds yet keeping them for English and Maths. If teacher assessment is judged to be good enough for Science then why not for other subjects?

"It is whistling in the wind to say that a Report Card will solve the problems of league tables. If every child is tested the media will find ways of accessing the information to produce school performance tables.

"The Report Card's aim to give a well rounded picture of schools is a good idea but reducing schools to a single letter is a missed opportunity.

"Using national sampling for Key Stage 3 may be useful if it reduces the burden of assessment. However, if it can be implemented at this stage why not at Key Stage 2?

"There are some good things within the Expert Group's report, such as the primary graduation certificate which, if introduced sensitively with schools owning it instead of Government imposing it, will paint a genuine picture of each child's positive achievements.

"The experts misread the extent to which secondary schools use the SATs results. As Jim Rose says in the Primary Review most secondary schools re-test in year 7 as they find the SATs results unreliable.

"The report recommends that the Government should continue to look to move away from externally marked tests. I sincerely hope they do. Teacher assessment has been shown time and time again to be as, if not more, reliable than tests.

"There has to be an end to the yearly ritual of humiliation we put our children through. It is time they had the education they deserve and I hope the Government acts to make this the last year of SATs."