20th May 2015 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Head teachers have been called on by academics and educational unions to reject new government tests for four year olds. The baseline tests are due to be introduced this year, and are intended to allow the government to measure students’ progress through primary school. The tests are currently optional, but schools are under a considerable amount of pressure to introduce them because not to do so would look poorly in school league tables. The National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers has called on schools to boycott the tests on the grounds that they make no educational sense and are bad for children.
The tests themselves have come under fire for being “crazy”, with teachers raising concerns about the bizarre questions included in the assessment. One of the questions requires a child to say the word ‘parrot’ and then requires them to repeat the word but without the ‘p’. Teachers and educationalists have also raised concerns regarding the effect of the tests on children’s mental health and well-being, due to the stress of being tested from the start of school. Commentators have also noted that the tests do little to assess the efficacy of schools, and that government policy should be to focus on bolstering children’s basic skills through fun, targeted classroom activities.
The tests, which come in later this year, are designed to complement the tests given to students before they begin secondary school. SATs taken by students aged 11 test their abilities in key areas of the national curriculum, and reveal that in some cases students are working at a level significantly below that which would be expected of students of that age group. Advocates of the tests for 4 year olds argue that a mechanism is required to test not only students’ progress, but also schools’ ability to improve results. The National Association of Head Teachers have condemned the proposals on the basis that they are unhealthy, unwelcome, and likely to give way to further educational fads.