Swinney has ‘a relentless focus’ on improving system
John Swinney has said he has a “relentless focus” on improving the education system in Scotland, despite concerns being raised over standardised assessments.
Speaking to the education committee at Holyrood yesterday, the education secretary said the tests work as a “diagnostic tool” for teachers in identifying where pupils need to improve.
Scottish national standardised assessments (SNSA) were introduced for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils to help measure the attainment gap in schools.
Mr Swinney said: “Fundamentally, I want to create a constantly improving education system – that is my mantra.
“I think in previous appearances before this committee I’ve said that I had a relentless focus on improvement, and that’s exactly what drives the agenda that we’re pursuing.”
The tests have been criticised by teachers, as well as teaching unions, who say they do not add value to the evaluation of pupil performance.
A submission to the committee by EIS referred to a survey of its members following the
first year of SNSAS being used in schools.
It read: “The majority of comments were critical of the value of SNSA data. The reasons cited were largely the unreliability of the assessment data in the context of wider assessment – in many cases the evidence provided was not in line with the wealth of information elicited by more valid and reliable means.
“Many teachers commented that the SNSAS provided little to nothing in the way of new information to inform their understanding of children’s progress and next steps in learning.
“Some explicitly referenced them as a waste of valuable time for this reason.”