Teachers are threatening a national boycott of new primary school literacy exams amid claims they will damage children’s education by forcing them to "jump through hoops".
The National Union of Teachers want to boycott exams for six and 11-year-olds in England. Photo: Alamy
1:15PM BST 01 Apr 2013
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144 Comments
Schools could refuse to administer an exam in spelling, punctuation and
grammar for 11-year-olds in England because it risks promoting a culture of
“teaching to the test” at the expense of providing a broad curriculum.
The National Union of Teachers said the exam for 600,000 pupils – being
introduced for the first time this year – will waste class time and fail to
improve children’s literacy.
Activists are also opposed to a controversial new reading test for
six-year-olds.
At the union’s annual conference in Liverpool, teachers voted to launch a
campaign that could lead to a boycott of the “pointless and silly” exams in
2014.
They unanimously backed a resolution intended to gather support from the other
main unions representing teachers and heads that may see staff refusing to
co-operate with the two tests next summer.
