The government has announced plans to publish separate league tables of national curriculum test results for 14-year-olds for the first time.

John Pugh, education spokesman, said: "The government is obsessed with league tables and introduces them now without rhyme or reason."The only certain effect is more testing, and more bureaucracy. The new tables are not unpopular with the education committee, not because they fear assessment, but because they are a distraction from real education progress.

"Sometimes it does the government no harm to listen to those who give their professional life to education."

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary, said: "This shows the government's continued reliance on testing and tables, even though it has never been shown that they contribute to improving educational standards.

"The government is obsessed with justifying to the electorate that it is delivering on its electoral promises, using children's education as a tool. It should be more concerned with allowing teachers to develop strategies which improves the learning of individuals rather than having to deliver on an arbitrary testing regime.

"Children should be at the centre of education and ATL believes that the government should recognise this in allowing teachers more frequently to demonstrate their professionalism and the fact that they are accountable to children's and parents."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The government's decision to publish league tables of test results for 14 year olds is a slap in the face for secondary schools.

"Performance tables are a form of naming and shaming which the government clearly wishes to encourage.

"All performance tables do is promote injustice by making it even harder for schools in the toughest areas to attract new pupils. Such schools may have good inspection reports but can never hope to top the results of schools in the leafy suburbs.

"The government has ignored the evidence that performance tables damage schools; evidence that governments in Wales and Scotland acted on by abolishing them a long time ago."