NEU comments on More Than A Score/YouGov survey of parents about testing

Commenting on a YouGov survey of parents commissioned by the campaign group More Than a Score, showing that the majority disagree with the Government’s policy of using SATs and other tests to judge primary schools, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

“In demonstrating that most parents do not value the current system of primary testing, this survey does a great service to public debate. Ever since the 1990s, ministers have told us that without the publication of test scores, parents’ confidence in schools would collapse. The survey undermines that claim: parents are deeply concerned about the effects of testing; they do not want their children to enter a system which prizes test scores above well-being. NEU members share these views. They believe in assessing children in ways that help them in their learning – our current high-stakes system has the opposite effect.”