BOYCOTT P1 TESTS
Revolt grows as teaching union backs parents who withdraw kids
PARENTS are being urged to boycott nationwide tests that have reduced five-year-olds to tears and left them shaking at their desks.
Youngsters starting school for the first time face the prospect of literacy and numeracy assessments as part of an SNP bid to drive up standards.
But parents are increasingly concerned about the impact such tests will have on their children’s mental health.
Many have asked if they can withdraw their children from the tests, officially called Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSAs).
Yesterday, the Scottish Government insisted the tests are compulsory – unless individual teachers decide a child should not sit them.
Even the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, has raised concerns about the assessments – and yesterday backed parents’ right to boycott.
It raises the prospect of another SNP education policy descending into chaos, only weeks after Education Secretary John Swinney was forced to shelve the Education Bill due to a lack of support.
This month National 3, 4 and 5 pass rates hit a four-year low and although Higher pass rates rose, Professor Lindsay Paterson, of Edinburgh University, said this was due to easier exams rather than improved teaching. Now Mr Swinney faces a parent revolt over tests on the youngest pupils.
Sue Palmer, a former teacher and member of the Government’s own Early Years Task Force, is leading the Upstart campaign, which opposes testing and instead calls for more play-based education for five to seven-year-olds. She urged parents to take matters into their own hands, saying: ‘Our message to parents, from a point of view of children’s educational success, is the best thing is play, and testing is counter-productive.
‘In the case of children who are less able to read or write at four or five, and who are pressurised into doing it, it could be damaging.
‘If you feel this testing will be harmful for your child, don’t do it. And even if you don’t but you feel it’s harmful for other children, then why do it?
‘We hope they will withdraw them from the tests.’
A spokesman for the EIS said: ‘The EIS supports the right of parents to opt their children out of the P1 standardised assessments but clearly that is a parental decision.’
However, the Government insisted yesterday the assessments are compulsory.
A spokesman said: ‘There is no statutory right for parents to withdraw their child from any aspect of schooling other than some parts of religious and sexual education. However, as the Scottish Government has always maintained, if a parent does not wish their child to take part in an aspect of teaching and learning, they should discuss this with the school who have the discretion to decide whether the child takes part or not.’
Yet the Government’s own correspondence, released under Freedom of Information, appears to contradict this,
‘Could be damaging for less able children’