Brown says primary Sats must stay

The prime minister said teachers performed 'minor miracles' daily

National tests at the end of primary schools are as important in holding schools to account as GCSEs and A-levels, Gordon Brown has said.

Writing in the Times Educational Supplement, the prime minister said "clear accountability through testing" need to be retained in England.

But he suggested more power would be devolved to heads and teachers.

His article comes days before two teaching unions step up their campaigns to boycott Sats for 11-year-olds.

'Top down'

The National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers are about to gauge their members' opinion on boycotting all work to do with the national curriculum tests at the end of primary schools.

The results of these tests in maths and English are used to collate primary league tables.

Many teachers and academics argue that because of this, schools feel obliged to focus too narrowly on these subjects, thus reducing the range of what children study.

But Mr Brown wrote: "Every school should be doing the best by all its pupils. But progress relies on the need to retain clear accountability through testing.

'Improve efficiency'

"This means at the end of primary school as much as at the end of secondary.

"It is why we are introducing the School Report Card, which will hold schools to account for how they ensure pupils progress."

But he suggested government policy was moving away from the target-driven "top-down" approach that had been necessary to raise standards from pre-Labour government levels.

This was why the secondary school curriculum had been thinned out and why the primary school curriculum was in the process of being thinned out.

He also hinted that schools would have to do more with the funds they are given.

"We will continue to protect education spending," he said, "but schools are not immune from the need to improve efficiency and value for money while improving quality."