Minister’s solution to exam stress: make children sit more exams

CHILDREN should sit more exams at a younger age as an antidote for exam pressure, the Schools Minister has said.

Defending reforms to the examinations system, Nick Gibb said that routine testing of pupils from the age of 11 onwards would lessen the toll on their mental health and help them prepare for their GCSE exams.

Giving evidence to the Commons education committee yesterday, he dismissed suggestions that exams were placing students under “constant, unending pressure”, adding that there were a “whole raft” of issues affecting students’ mental well-being. His remarks drew criticism from Labour MPS and mental health charities, who claimed that the current system was “fundamentally unbalanced”.

“The way to deal with exam pressures is to make sure that young people have taken exams earlier on in their school career – at the end of Year 7 at the end of Year 8 and so on – so they are used to taking exams,” he added.

“I don’t think it’s right to say that reforms to the curriculum are the cause of young people’s anxiety and mentalhealth pressure. Exam pressure has always been part of being at school. Nothing we’ve done has made it worse.”

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph last night, Mr Gibb said he had been referring to internal end-of-year exams set by schools, adding that there were no plans to introduce new national tests.

He was challenged by Emma Hardy, the Labour MP, who said that pupils attending school today faced far greater pressure to succeed than previous generations. Her comments were echoed by Matt Blow, of the charity Young Minds, who said: “The education system is fundamentally unbalanced, with a far greater focus on exam results than the well-being of students.”

Last year, Mr Gibb also announced that 11-year-olds would have to sit times tables tests before leaving primary school, for the first time since 1944.