The Easter weekend sounded the beginning of the end for the dreaded Sat’s exams in England and Wales, more than 1,000 delegates at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference in Cardiff passed the motion unanimously, to a standing ovation. Telegraph 12 Apr 2009 ‘Teachers unanimously back Sats boycott‘
Members want the tests to be replaced by teacher assessment, and the school league tables - which are based on Sats results - scrapped. They claim that the tests damage children’s education because there is too much narrow “teaching to the test”, with pupils cramming for the papers months before they sit them.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which represents 85 per cent of primary heads, will vote next month on a boycott. The joint action, to start next year, will escalate tensions between the Government and the teaching profession and comes just weeks before the start of this year’s Sats in English, maths and science for 11 year olds, which start on May 11.
Max Hyde, a member of the NUT executive, said: “At best Sat’s are detrimental and skew the curriculum, at worst, and particularly for our most vulnerable children, they are perilously close to child abuse.”
The news has been met with backlash from the Government, Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, has stated that a boycott would be “irresponsible and disruptive”
The Department for Children, Schools and Families had urged NUT members not to vote in favour in the ballot. It said any attempt to boycott the tests was “unlawful” and risked “removing a basic right” of parents to see how their children and local schools were performing.
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