Testing (Hansard, 11 May 1993)

§ 19. Mr. Jim Marshall
To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he next plans to meet organisations representing teachers to discuss testing.

§ Mr. Forth
On the subject of testing, teachers have been invited to make their views known to Sir Ron Dearing, the chairman-designate of the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, who is conducting a review of the national curriculum and assessment.
404W

§ 21. Mr. Bryan Davies
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received recently on the implementation of testing in schools; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Forth
Since the beginning of the year the Department has received around 6,500 letters from teachers, parents, governors and others about testing in schools. In addition, my right hon. Friend has met parents, teachers in staff-rooms, governors and organisations at conferences. He has met national representatives of the teachers' associations on 19 occasions and delegations from all six teacher unions. He has also visited 37 schools since he took office in April 1992.

§ 22. Mr. David Shaw
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to overcome problems in the testing of school pupils; and what assessment he has made of the relative effectiveness of United Kingdom testing and methods existing in other countries.

§ Mr. Forth
My right hon. Friend has asked Sir Ron Dearing to conduct a wide-ranging review of the manageability of the national curriculum and the associated testing and assessment framework. A great deal of information is already available about testing in other countries, including a recent report from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research which found that the higher standards achieved by pupils in the middle to lower ability range in France, Germany and Japan was attributable to the existence in these countries of long-standing national curricula reinforced by regular assessment and reporting.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to use the power to surcharge under the Local Government Finance Act 1982 to ensure that governors and teachers implement testing in schools.

§ Mr. Forth
Sections 19 and 20 of the Local Government Finance Act 1982 set out the power to seek restitution from those concerned where public funds have been spent improperly or have not been properly accounted for. Action under these sections falls to the auditor appointed under the Act.

§ Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what study he has made of testing of pupils in other countries.

§ Mr. Forth
A great deal of information is available, from Ofsted and other sources, about testing arrangements in other countries. It shows that tests are well-established in most of our main competitor countries. For example—The findings of the HMI report on "Aspects of Primary Education in France" in 1991 indicated that the French National Curriculum has long stressed the importance of basic literacy and numeracy for primary schools and that pupils' attainments in reading, writing and mathematics were assesed at the ages of 8 and 11 entirely through paper and pencil tests; —a report published earlier this year by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research found that the higher standards achieved by pupils in the middle to lower ability range in France, Germany and Japan were mainly attributable to the existence of long-standing national curricula in these countries, "reinforced through regular assessment and reporting".