SNP defeated on P1 testing but schools told to carry on
●Swinney facing calls to respect will of Parliament and halt tests immediately
John Swinney last night urged schools to continue with controversial tests for primary one pupils despite being dealt a humiliating defeat in the Scottish Parliament.
The Education Secretary’s opponents united behind a Conservative motion calling for the tests to be “halted” amid claims they upset four and five-year-old pupils and teachers were against them.
But despite impassioned opposition calls for Mr Swinney to respect the will of parliament, he left the door open for pressing ahead with the digital assessments.
After the vote, the Deputy First Minister tweeted that the Scottish Government still believed “assessment is an important part of [the] improvement agenda”.
He advised schools “to continue with their existing plans on SNSAS (Scottish National Standardised
Assessments)”. Mr Swinney also said he would consider the outcome of the debate and make a parliamentary statement in due course.
But the Holyrood vote was another serious setback for the embattled Education Secretary who is facing widespread opposition to his school reforms.
Earlier this year Mr Swinney shelved his flagship Education Bill, which was supposed to deliver more control over schools to headteachers amid opposition from local authorities and rival politicians.
Nicola Sturgeon has made turning around Scotland’s education system her key policy priority and appointed Mr Swinney to the education brief two years ago to achieve that.
The Tories tabled their motion calling for the tests to be scrapped for primary one pupils after widespread concern about the impact they were having on children and teachers.
Holyrood’s Education Committee had previously heard evidence suggesting that young children had been reduced to tears by the assessments.
Many teachers submitted evidence saying too much time was devoted to setting up and sitting the tests which could be better spent on other educational activities.
Labour, Lib Dem and Green politicians backed the Conservative motion which questioned whether primary one tests were consistent with “play-based philosophy” to defeat the SNP by 63 votes to 61.
An amendment in Mr Swinney’s name arguing the tests were valuable for closing the attainment gap and educating children was defeated by the same margin. The vote, however, was not binding for the government because it was not a legislative one.
The Conservative motion focussed on scrapping tests for primary one pupils, because Ruth Davidson’s party favours keeping national assessments for older children.
As well as primary one, the Scottish Government has introduced SNSAS for primaries four and seven plus S3 at secondary schools. Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens oppose the tests altogether.
During a fiery debate Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said while her party had backed the use of the tests, they had been wrong to do so when it came to the youngest pupils.
“We made a mistake about P1,” Ms Smith admitted. Last night Ms Smith urged the SNP not to defy the will of Holyrood.
“The Scottish Parliament has voted decisively on this matter, and now the SNP government must act on that,” Ms Smith said.
“The Nationalists have ignored the evidence on this for quite some time, but they can’t afford to any longer. These tests need to be halted, and the evidence re-examined. The SNP is always talking about how important the Scottish Parliament is and how its will must be respected.
“This is the perfect chance for the SNP to do just that.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard raised a point of order saying the will of parliament should be obeyed.
Mr Leonard said: “Teachers told this government that
these tests were useless, ministers ignored them. Parents told this government that they do not trust these tests, ministers ignored them. The Scottish Parliament has now voted to scrap these tests and SNP ministers must not now ignore the will of parliament. The government must therefore bring forward immediate plans for how it will respond to this evening’s vote as a matter of urgency.”
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Tavish Scott MSP said: “A child could tell you that 63 votes is bigger than 61 but John Swinney’s stubbornness has ensured that he has had to find out the hard way.”
pupils typically studied eight subjects in S4.
However, Professor Jim Scott, an honorary professor of education at the University of Dundee, said schools are offering anything from five to eight courses to pupils in S4 under the new curriculum.
Having surveyed all 359 secondary schools, he concluded: “The latest position is that 54 per cent of Scottish secondary schools are offering their children only six courses.
“Approximately a third, slightly less than that, are offering seven courses.
“About an 11th are offering eight courses and there are still three or four hardy souls who are offering five courses.
“The evidence demonstrates that the problem for many middle and upper ability-ranged
children is that their choice is squeezed, particularly in five and six course schools.”
In that instance, children would tend to choose maths and English, then two sciences and a social subject, or vice versa, leaving “the entire remainder of the Scottish curriculum” fighting to be the final subject picked.
“Needless to say, much of what would have been a beneficial experience for these children in times past has gone and that obviously has an impact on attainment,” the former head teacher added.
Had the S4 situation continued as it was in 2013, there would have been an extra 622,000 qualifications in Scotland over the five subsequent years, he said, describing the figure as “almost unbelievable”.
He continued: “That curriculum narrowing has impacted significantly on the quantity of attainment, but has also impacted on the progression pathways then available to children.”
Children at the lower levels of ability appear to be worstaffected by CFE, MSPS were told.
Dr Marina Shapira, of the University of Stirling’s social policy department, said she too found a variation in the number of subjects offered to S4 children across different local authorities.
She said: “Our findings were quite striking because we found a clear relationship in the rate of reduction of the number of subject choices made by S4 pupils and the level of school deprivation.
“This finding is very worrying.”