Head denounces testing 'obsession'

By Gary Eason BBC News Online at the NAHT conference in York

A leading head teacher has said education in England could benefit by following the Welsh example of ending the testing of younger children and scrapping school league tables.

Cardiff head Gareth Matthewson spoke out following his installation as this year's president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

In Wales, no more tests for younger pupils

The union's annual conference, in York, is due to debate various resolutions on Sunday calling for the abolition of tables and tests.

Mr Matthewson, head of Whitchurch High School, said the government's "obsession with the three Ts" - testing, targets and tables - was damaging children's education.

Teaching was about "switching on that bright light inside a child's mind", helping them to think creatively, to acquire the skills for living and to develop a love of learning and discovery.

"Unfortunately, the testing, targets and tables regime pulls us in exactly the opposite direction."

Achievements were numbers on a page, a position in a league table.

'Success becomes failure'

Assessment was essential but the "high stakes" nature of the government's accountability agenda was distorting the curriculum and damaging youngsters' education.

And tests "turn success into failure", he said. An 8% increase in performance - "a success in anyone's book" - became a failure if the target had been 10%.

By the same token the government set itself up to fail. Instead of celebrating the success of the 2002 test results for 11 year olds, it had found itself "face to face with failure" for not having reached its targets.

"It has also not learnt the lesson, as the targets it has set for 2004 are equally over-ambitious, and there is a real danger that their effect will be to lower the morale of all who work in the education service," he said.

"It is time to say 'enough is enough'. Abolish performance tables and give schools the responsibility for setting their own targets."

Welsh example

In his own country, the Welsh Assembly Government had abolished all performance tables - after which Welsh schools had produced their best set of examination results.

There were no imposed targets. The tests taken by seven year olds had also been abolished.

The head of the Welsh inspection service, Estyn - Susan Lewis - had said in her annual report: "Getting rid of tests for pupils at seven means teachers do not need to prepare them for tests in English and mathematics and can spend more time teaching the programmes of study for all subjects".

Mr Matthewson said: "The implications are clear: abolish external tests or reduce their status, and standards across the board will rise."

At its Easter conference the biggest teachers' union, the NUT, voted to ballot its members on boycotting the national curriculum "Sats" tests next year - this year's are just beginning.

But the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said the tests were "here to stay".

And the Department for Education and Skills rejected Mr Matthewson's criticisms.

A spokesperson said: "Regular testing is central to raising standards and helping every child reach their potential.

"There will be no going back to the days when there was no regular information about pupils' progress.

"We certainly welcome discussion with the NAHT and the rest of the profession about the content of tests but the testing itself is here to stay."

Funding threat

The NAHT's new president also sent a warning to the government about the funding crisis its members say they are facing this year - in Wales as well as in England.

The conference is expected to threaten on Sunday that the union will pull out of the agreement with the government on reducing teachers' workloads unless it is persuaded there will be enough resources to pay for the reforms.

"Our message to the government is simple and clear: if the resources are not made available to all head teachers, then we will say no," said Mr Matthewson.

"It is all very well for the government to have a vision of how these workload reductions may work but they must understand the saying, 'vision without resources is hallucination', and we want no part of that game."