Aptitude tests in technology for 11-year-olds

New tests in technological ability for 11-year-olds could help the Government's business-sponsored technology colleges to select their pupils in future.

The tests, commissioned by ministers, may be based on selection procedures used by the Air Force to pick potential pilots and navigators. Officials from the City Technology Colleges Trust have already visited RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, where the selection takes place, to look at the interactive computer exams used there.

Under the new tests, children would be assessed on skills such as hand- eye co-ordination and spatial awareness. Their results could determine whether they are allowed to enter one of the country's 196 specialist state schools and colleges.

A research project to develop the new exams was launched yesterday by Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education, as she announced 38 new technology and language colleges. It will initially work on tests for technological aptitude but could be extended to other subjects such as languages.

Mrs Shephard said the project was designed not to assess knowledge or skills but aptitude. Children who had never studied a foreign language would be able to take such a test as easily as one who had, she said, and the exam could prove useful to over-subscribed schools. "This is to make sure that schools have all the tools they need available to them to make such a selection if that's what they require."

Existing tests developed by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which will carry out the research, require children to solve puzzles and fit shapes into spaces. The new variety might also include an interactive computer.

Opinion among headteachers invited to yesterday's press conference was divided. Frank Green, principal of the Lincoln School of Science and Technology, a grant-maintained school supported by 50 companies, said he would be interested in using the tests. His school already used the NFER tests with 12- and 14-year-olds to monitor progress and was considering using them as a selection tool for 11-year-olds.

Hazel Farrow, principal of Loxford Technology College in Redbridge, east London, said she would not use them. "In terms of the future of the country, it is the average child who needs to have these skills. I think those with aptitude will gain them anyway. I want to increase those skills in the population in general," she said.

Yesterday's announcement brings the number of language colleges to 30, technology colleges to 151 and City Technology Colleges to 15. Business sponsors have now contributed pounds 60m in just under 10 years.

To take part in the programme, schools must raise pounds 100,000 in sponsorship. There were 117 applications for 38 places in the latest tranche of new colleges. Among the successful ones was one of the country's top grammar schools, the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, which will become a language college.