Press Release

Voice welcomes scrapping of tests for 14-year-olds

14 October 2008

Voice: the union for education professionals has welcomed news that national tests for 14-year-old pupils in England are to be scrapped.

General Secretary Philip Parkin said: “This is excellent news that will be welcomed by schools, parents and children.  Voice has been calling for this for a long time, and for increased use of teacher assessment.

“The fiasco of this year’s marking processes demonstrated how the whole system had become too big, too expensive, too unwieldy and too inaccurate.

“Now that tests at 14 are going, there seems little point in continuing with those at 11, and they should be scrapped too.   The current system of ‘accountability’ is for the benefit of the government rather than for providing information for parents and taxpayers.

“We will take part in the consultation on the ‘report cards’ when we know the full details.”