Fife Council Warn Against Primary Tests

Primary school pupils could face National Testing in the coming years as the Scottish Government look to improve attainment levels across Scotland.

Standardised tests across subjects like Maths and English help focus teaching methods and track pupil progress. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the aim is to cut the attainment gap between rich and poor.

But Fife council leader David Ross has cautioned against it being introduced by the Scottish Government.

He said: "There is agreement across the political spectrum that we need to raise educational attainment and close the gap in attainment between pupils from richer and poorer households so that all our young people get the chance to achieve their full potential.
 
"We have seen significant improvements in attainment in Fife over the last couple of years, raising standards across the board but very importantly we are also narrowing the attainment gap with pupils from less well-off backgrounds improving faster.  We have seen improvements in literacy and numeracy in contrast to much of the rest of Scotland where standards have fallen. We have achieved this significant progress by improving the quality of learning and teaching in our classrooms, as our school inspection results show. We have used standardised assessments in Fife for many years to support young people in their learning but always resisted using this information to produce league tables which always reinforce negative stereotypes in areas of social disadvantage.
 
"We have argued for a national performance framework for education that introduces a consistent approach to raising attainment across Scotland but this needs to go far beyond a single set of standardised tests.  The devil will be in the detail.  Despite the assurances given by Nicola Sturgeon, this approach risks a return to ‘teaching to the test’ and the introduction of crude ‘league tables’ of school performance."