Teachers slam testing of five-year-olds

Last updated at 11:42 24 June 2004


The results of the first national education assessments of five-year-olds were published today amid controversy about their worth and reliability.

The assessments, known as the Foundation Stage Profile, have been criticised by the Chief Inspector of Schools and teaching unions, one of which described the data as "unreliable and unhelpful".

They became compulsory for all five-year-olds in state schools last year, replacing dozens of different methods of assessing children's early achievements.

Teachers are required to mark pupils on their education skills, including reading, listening, speaking and concentration, to gauge the progress and learning of infants.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) questioned the Government's decision to publish the data from the pilot year and said it had put extra pressure on teachers.

Ofsted chief David Bell has also criticised the scheme, saying it did not "fit the bill" in its current form, was too "bureaucratic and time consuming" and failed to provide parents and teachers with the information they needed.

Ted Wragg, emeritus professor of education at Exeter University, said some of the 117 tick-box judgments teachers were required to make

were "ludicrous" and "brainlessly vague".

If they had a class of 30, teachers had to make more than 3,500 assessments every term, he said.

The "experimental" results from the pilot year of the profile were published this morning by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

They were published on a national and not a school-by-school or local education authority basis, and cover only England.

As this was the first assessment of pupils of this age, no comparison could be made with previous years.

The Foundation Stage Profile was designed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Government's curriculum advisers.

There were reports earlier this week that teachers were being required to write reports "the size of novels" to go alongside the assessments, backing up each judgment with

evidence.

However, the profile was defended by the DfES, which said it was important to measure how children were progressing in their education.

It stressed the figures were not the results of "tests" and were not a step towards performance tables for infants, as unions claim.

"The results should be treated with caution as this is the first year for which such data have been collected," said a spokesman.

The statistics have been published on its website www.dfes.gov.uk.

Most watched News videos