Scrap tests call:
THE tests for five-year-olds should be scrapped, Scotland’s largest teaching union has said.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) argues the distress caused to pupils and the lack of meaningful information means the assessments are “inappropriate”.
The union also believes the way the standardised literacy and numeracy tests are being administered in some schools is adding to the problem.
Scottish Government guidance is clear that the computer-based multiple choice assessments should be delivered in a relaxed way to individual pupils.
However, some councils are testing whole groups of pupils at the same time, which creates a more stressful atmosphere.
The EIS is the latest voice to call for the assessments in P1 to be scrapped, with political opposition from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish Labour, the Greens and Scottish Conservatives.
Similar assessments introduced last session in the later years of primary and in secondary have been less controversial as children are more mature.
Education Secretary
John Swinney believes P1 testing is vital because it give the earliest possible indication of pupil strengths and weaknesses.
The EIS has now written to Mr Swinney calling for action to ensure councils adhere to the guidance for all assessments – with the scrapping of those in P1 a priority. Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the
EIS, said: “We think P1 assessments are inappropriate for the learning experience of P1, which should be through structural play. They should be scrapped.
“It is clear also from the evidence that there appears to have been a widespread breaching of the guidelines. The guidelines were supposed to ensure these assessments felt low key, but given the evidence we have gathered, that is clearly not the case in many circumstances.
“If you start creating windows of testing then you create a high stakes approach, which is what has happened in P1, and the pupils sense it is a test, which is where it feels more difficult.
“The problem is that, because the government is insisting that every child is tested, then the only way some schools can do that with the equipment or staff support they have is with larger groups of children.”