Do keep up, Minister!

David Lindsay

It is of course perfectly true that we now have examination instead of education. The rot set in when those preparing for GCSEs started to be sent home except for when they were sitting exams, and then simply given a long summer holiday once they had sat their last ones.

It was, and is, presupposed as if obvious that the only reason to be taught anything is in order to pass an exam on it. So if there are no more exams, then there is no point to any more teaching. Is there?

Commondog

I listened to Jim Knight with amazement.
His defence of SATs amounted to the fact that they are a kind of ritual; familiarity with which, enables pupils to feel more at ease when they later walk in to the real thing: GCSEs. Expensive rehearsals these.

I agree with the charge that what has brought our education system to its knees is the 'malignity' of the educationists, and this over the last 40 years.

Nevertheless, SATs are a blight on children, teachers and parents, and should be scrapped. So what if they are a test of teachers? No worthwhile action is taken from the results. It's token gesture.

The answer lies in putting this educational coterie to the test and getting them shipped out. Those who choose to take on the task of teaching our children, deserve better than having to gyrate to the tune of these wilting flower people and their wistful initiatives.

Steve Maughan

I think it's time for a shake up of education. Governments have their own agendas and don't seem like a good monopolistic provider of children's education for the masses. Sure they can pay for it - just not provide it. Give the parents power to choose *who* educates their kids by introducing a voucher system whereby parents can choose the provider - state, private or whatever.

Ian C

The problem with SAT's are that the teachers have been allowed to pass the stress that they are put under by the tests onto their pupils. Testing of schools should not be a planned event but a spot-check. The teachers and the school should not have the time to coach their students through the tests. That a Labour Education Minister does not understand the purpose of testing should not surprise anyone. It suits that party's world view that the Teachers Unions should be protected so that the case for State education and other socialist politically correct teachings along with it, are perpetuated. The only role the state should have in education is the spot-testing of schools. This is why the Tories have got to get radical with their proposals because they will get their best chance at the beginning of their impending turn at governemnt and it will take two terms to bed down. Timidity will allow socialism to still dominate the most important issue to the future of this country. It must be squeezed hard, and fast out, of the system, along with the thousands of incompetents who just want an easy life within it. This was a huge failing of the Major government, not getting the right testing regime properly bedded down in the early 1990's so Nu Lab came along and played politics with it. GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF EDUCATION. Once this is done we can then begin to get government out of the rest of our lives and into the things that only it can do.

Ian G

Of course teachers teach to the test! Nobody wants to fail. Heads especially will put pressure on teachers to achieve SAT success. Parents will put pressure on everyone so their little ray of sunshine will effortlessly succeed all the way to a worthless PhD. 50% of the population is average or below, by definition. 25% of pupils do not reach the same levels as their fellows. Well now, there's a surprise. We need to decide what is acceptable for that 25% to know, bearing in mind that our society is now geared to academic skills, having destroyed our industry and agriculture.

As for schools and education, I would sugeest reading some Ivan Ilich or John Gall's 'Systemantics' (If you can get it). Education is not what schools do - and rarely has been. Universal Education - as opposed to literacy and numeracy - requires every teacher to be gifted AND capable of communicating with every child. This is obvious nonsense.

Everyone expects schools to do everything. It's time to put parenting back in the family; families back into marriage; give a man(or woman) an income which will support a family and a stay-at-home partner; skills training back into apprenticeships and the like; stop turning every qualification into a degree - just give people the respect they deserve etc. etc. And finally, put discipline back into schools and this means paying MEN a professional salary.

My apologies of this appears twice but there is a connection problem.

Bluegram

What is all too frequently forgotten is that National Curriculum Level 4 was originally designed to be the level that the average 11 year old reached at the end of primary school. Logically one would expect that around 45% of children would fall below this level and another 45% above. However journalists and politicians turned this average into the "expected standard". Now shools are under preassure to ensure that all children are average or better. The percentage of children achieving level 4 has stalled at around 82%. To me that suggests that schools have reached the limit of ther ability to get below average students to get an avergae level in a high- stakes one off test. However our addiction to bashing teachers means that statements along the lines of "20% of our children leave primary school unable to read or write properly" go uncommented upon.

John Smith

Yes, they were meant to test the teachers, and in the first year or two they may have been what they did. But what if some teachers see a way to boost their school rating and start teaching to the test? It makes their pupils appear artificially better and sets a higher standard, one impossible to reach for the average unless all teachers start teaching to the test. But the government will insist that the impossible standard is reached, so...