Teachers support ballot over test boycott
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Your support makes all the difference.The threat of massive disruption to national tests in primary and secondary schools moved a step closer yesterday after a poll showed strong support among teachers in the profession's largest union for a boycott.
The National Union of Teachers said its members wanted ballots on whether to boycott tests taken by 1.8 million seven, 11 and 14-year-olds every year.
Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, reacted angrily to the poll and urged NUT members to vote against test-related "strikes", saying that a boycott would be an "absolute betrayal" of pupils and parents.
The poll result was the latest move in the union's long-running campaign against national tests, which it first boycotted in the early 1990s.
Delegates at this Easter's NUT annual conference demanded a fresh boycott next year, which would cause massive disruption in schools.
The survey of more than 30,500 NUT members showed that 82.5 per cent wanted a boycott of testing of seven-year-olds, 71.4 per cent for 11-year-olds and 64 per cent in the case of 14-year-olds. Only 6.3 per cent believed the tests were a reliable way of measuring pupils' performance and just 5.5 per cent reported that they helped "diagnose" where children needed to improve.
The poll showed 59 per cent believed the tests undermined teachers' professional judgement and 84.5 per cent thought they were stressful for pupils.
More than nine out of 10 NUT members in England and Wales thought the tests were damaging children's education by narrowing the curriculum. And 85 per cent said assessment by teachers would be a reliable alternative.
The Welsh Assembly has already decided to scrap tests for seven-year-olds. In England, the Government has made some concessions by ruling that teacher assessment should be a key way of judging the achievements of seven-year-olds. However, Mr Clarke ruled out any further concessions on the tests taken by 11 and 14-year-olds in English, maths and science.
Doug McAvoy, the NUT's general secretary, said the union's national executive will consider the "overwhelming support for a boycott" when it meets early next month.
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