YP Letters: Obsession with tests distracts from learning

Should there be more or less school tests?

YOUR recent Editorial “Standards is the critical test” makes a strong case for testing, but avoids considering the negative aspects of “high stakes testing”.

The old adage “If you want a cow to grow, you feed it. You don’t weigh it” applies here.

In many cases the purpose of teaching has become enabling the pupils to do well in the SATs or GCSE, not to educate them.

A great deal of time is spent showing them how to respond to particular types of question, then practicing how to answer sample questions. Then there are the “mock” exams, which can occupy a whole week for GCSEs.

Teacher assessment can be just as effective a tool, if it is appropriately moderated.

Part of the problem is that Conservative politicians are very suspicious of “The Blob”, – teachers and others in the education world.

Examining every child in every school is an enormously expensive exercise and has created a huge financially-profitable industry so a school’s exam bill can run into thousands of pounds.

The time and money could  be much better spent in other ways, without detracting from the process of holding schools  to account.