Commenting on the Department for Education’s plans to manage the
disruption of Covid-19 on primary assessment, Dr Mary Bousted,
Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, schools have been working
to care for children’s wellbeing and to engage them in learning.
They will ask whether this latest announcement helps or hinders
their work.
"At key stage 1 the cancellation of tests and the focus on
teacher assessment are welcome. Removing the pressure of tests
will free up time for teaching the broad and rich curriculum
which children need now more than ever.
"We believe that tests in key stage 2 should also have been
cancelled. Keeping most KS2 tests in place will mean that in many
schools they will continue to be the focus of Year 6 teaching.
The government has not recovered from its addiction to testing,
and children will pay the price. Months of test preparation are
not the way to ‘build back better’.
"The government needs urgently to clarify what it means to do
with test results. It says that they will not be published, but
this is very different from saying that they won’t be used.
Teachers require an assurance that the results of key stage 2
tests in 2021, which cannot possibly be a measure of the quality
of a school, will not be used as a measure of accountability.
"The suspicion remains that key stage 2 SATs are being brought
back not because of their educational value, but because the
government fears that schools will learn to live without them."
