CONCERNS about standardised tests for Scotland’s youngest pupils will not be brushed off, education secretary John Swinney pledged yesterday.
The Deputy First Minister was pressed on the subject yesterday at Holyrood by LibDem Tavish Scott.
The Scottish Government has said education is its priority, with closing the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils a major part of this.
Yesterday Swinney said the countrywide assessments – brought in to replace regionally-set measures – would help achieve this aim.
Appearing before Holyrood’s Education Committee, he said he was aware of the debate around the testing of children as young as five, particularly those from disadvantaged communities.
But the senior cabinet secretary also said he was “committed” to continuing literacy and numeracy assessments for children in primary one.
Questioning Swinney, Scott said: “Primary teachers are telling me, or they’re asking the question: ‘is the right thing to do to test a five-year-old’s numbers and reading skills of kids who come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds’ – in other words, who are living in poverty?
“They say ‘could we not have some more flexibility to get out of the testing regime, there are much better things we can do with our group of five-year-olds’ .
“Do you think that’s a reasonable argument?”
Swinney responded: “I’m very sensitive to the argument about P1 assessment and I acknowledge the debate that is going on around this point.
“I’m taking very careful and close interest in it.
“I’m listening to what people are saying to me about this.
“There have been over 400,000 Scottish national standardised assessments undertaken so far and I’m hearing some feedback about the P1 assessments, but I’ve not been inundated with that.
“But I’m very open to the question.”
Defending the move, he continued: “I think we’ve got to get this into its proper context.
“The P1 assessment, if properly handled, will be a pretty straightforward experience for a child.
“It’s not presented in exam circumstances like the Scottish Qualifications Authority specialise in.
“It should be done in a very relaxed environment within the classroom, it should not take any longer than 40 minutes as an experience, that’s once a year.
“I don’t say that in any way to trivialise the issues because I’m very alert to these concerns.
“But one of the reasons why we want to do this is to help to inform teacher judgement about where young people’s educational development needs the greatest amount of support.
“It’s to inform the professional judgement of teachers about how they then deploy their professional skills.
“What it will help us with is to assess how much progress we are making year by year in closing the poverty-related attainment gap.”
Swinney told the session: “That’s why we’re doing this, to give teachers the information to better inform their steps to close the poverty-related attainment gap but I’m very happy to acknowledge that I’m sensitive to the issues that are raised about the P1 assessments and I’ll listen carefully to the feedback that we get.”
When asked after the committee meeting if he was considering scrapping the assessments for the youngest children, Swinney said he remained “absolutely 100 per cent committed to those assessments”.
He added: “What I will consider is feedback that comes from the exercise of those assessments.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel