Return of school tests is a good start

WHISPER it, but Nicola Sturgeon might belatedly be turning her attention to one of the real-world problems that matters far more to Scots than her party’s constitutional obsession.

By reintroducing testing of school pupils, she is hoping to gather empirical evidence about standards so as to accurately measure the impact of SNP policy on attainment.

Few areas of government responsibility are as vital as education where tinkering, no matter how well-intentioned, can have a disastrous effect on the future prospects of children.

Anecdotal evidence that all is far from well in Scotland’s schools abounds. The dogmatic Mike Russell rammed through the Curriculum for Excellence with no heed for warnings over its suitability. Angela Constance has little positive to show after more than a year as Education Secretary.

So the First Minister’s decision to bring back testing is a welcome step in the right direction even if the SNP is merely formalising what many councils have gone to considerable expense to achieve via ad hoc testing.

And yet old habits die hard. The raw data will not be released to the public – why ever not?

We are told this is to reassure teaching unions that results will not be used to generate league tables.

Instead, all that will be released will be broad figures about how many pupils have achieved a given level of competence. Even then, teachers themselves will be involved in the assessment process – undermining the concept of independent testing. Much of this smacks of appeasing unions and not focusing on what truly matters: the pupils themselves.

The Greens exemplified what has gone wrong with their risible warning that the new tests could ‘cause anxiety for pupils and staff ’.

That anxiety is nothing compared to parents’ real concern that their children’s chances of competing in a global marketplace are being compromised by inept politicians in thrall to belligerent teaching unions.

Testing of pupils, long championed by this newspaper, provides key benchmarks for pupils themselves, for their teachers and for politicians. Miss Sturgeon should embrace the concept – and indeed anything and everything that improves children’s chances – wholeheartedly and ignore the vested interests who want to water down even this very modest reform.