Press Release
HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE REPORT – TESTING AND ASSESSMENT
13 May 2008
Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary, of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said:
“The Government now stands isolated on the future of National Curriculum testing. It has steadfastly resisted the mounting evidence of the damage caused by the 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.
“The Select Committee rightly points to the poisonous effects of testing, national targets and school performance tables. However the last thing schools need is a continuation of school performance tables in an expanded form. School performance tables lead to invidious and unfair rankings which often paint a picture of failure where there is great success. This is the conclusion reached long ago by Wales and Scotland.
“There is only one logical move now which can be taken by the Government. It should initiate an independent review of the testing regime and school accountability. It should draw on the experiences of countries in other parts of the United Kingdom, which have stripped out from their schools the testing regime which schools in England still have to endure.
“The ‘Making Good Progress’ pilot of single level tests is not enough. It is subject to the unreasonable expectations which characterise the current testing regime and will lead to similar damaging effects that schools experience currently”.
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