EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney has launched a fresh defence of standardised testing after criticism by “ill-informed” and “hypocritical” opponents of the national assessments for primary one pupils.
Swinney said that attempts to score political points at the expense of Scottish schoolchildren would leave opposition politicians facing the ire of parents.
His comments come ahead of a Scottish Parliament vote on the issue where the Scottish Government are expected to face defeat, although that would not be legally binding.
The tests have been criticised by the EIS teaching union, who alleged that they left schoolchildren in tears. Swinney called for “fact-based” debate.
He said: “I am perfectly happy to have a debate on the merits of standardised assessments which is based on fact, but frankly many of the criticisms from opposition politicians have ranged from ill-informed to hypocritical. Some opposition politicians are now proposing to scrap P1 assessments.
“To do this would be deeply irresponsible, and parents would quite rightly never forgive any politician who puts party politics ahead of the educational interests of their children.”
Swinney added: “For those same parties to suddenly claim that there is an issue with P1 assessments when an SNP Government adopts the policy nationally reeks of political opportunism of the worst order.”
There are only three of Scotland’s 32 local authorities who have not had P1 assessments prior to the national introduction. This includes local councils run by Labour, LibDem and Conservative administrations.
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: “The facts are that the government has tried to say that these tests are an integral part of teaching to assess strengths and weaknesses of individual pupils, and that they also provide comparative data school to school.
“They cannot do both, and the government’s own statisticians have told them so.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said Swinney is “refusing to listen” to teachers, whilst Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman, claimed that current evidence suggested “major issues” with the tests.
Green education spokesman Ross Greer also accused the SNP of “ignoring” evidence on the tests.
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