Every Parent Matters

Alistair Owens www.keen2learn.co.uk/news

The primary school results are out. This year these “educational games” are on time, inaccurate and heavy criticised by teachers, parents and the marking contractor.

A lot rides on the SAT’s. The examination results reveal the performance of the pupil, teacher and school. Targets are met or missed and critically SAT’s are designed to give secondary schools an indication of a child’s potential. But they don’t.

The “teach to test” syndrome that distorts the true ability of children and a teacher’s prowess, is routinely heralded by secondary heads as a waste. The policy change where the exams are to be  moved until children arrive in their new school gives partial relief to the primary sector, the secondary schools who inherit the burden think otherwise. But perhaps the greatest shock from the latest results is the claim of government interference by the examination marking contractors.

Exam technique advice given by teachers is not to panic. A pity the schools department weren’t listening. The examiners claim their job was made impossible through constant government interference probably resulting from the 2008 results fiasco, when the original contractor was fired. But maybe there is a common denominator. Lightening may not always strike the same point twice but maybe the schools department does.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 8:11 am and is filed under opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.