A teachers’ union says it wants the scrapping of school league tables in England, rather than Sats tests. Taken from the BBC ‘ Scrap tables not Sats, union says’ reported from the NASUWT conference.
Chris Keates, leader of the NASUWT teachers’ union, says
“calling for tests to be replaced by teacher assessment is ‘crazy’. Teachers need more than gesture politics and assessment will involve more work for teachers”
This is in stark contrast to reports coming from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) who are to hold a ballot boycotting the Sats tests next year.
Ms Keates then went on to say,
“Recent calls by some unions for a boycott on Sats are distracting from the real issue: the dire need for the abolition of the performance league tables into which the Sats results are fed. Abolishing Sats and leaving the current league tables and inspection regime in place will simply plunge teachers even deeper into the nightmare world they already inhabit of hugely bureaucratic, workload-intensive assessment and lesson planning.”
Addressing the conference on Wednesday, the Schools Secretary Ed Balls rejected the boycott calls from the NUT and has suggested a resolution by the proposal of introducing a new Report Card system of grading schools, which would combine test results with information such as the social background of pupils.
What are your thoughts,should the SATS be abolished or the league tables on wich the SAT’s are basesd. Have your say.