Goodbye to all SATS?
Updated on 10 June 2007
Education's professional body condemns school tests for imposing pointless stress and revealing little about schools' performance.
School children in England and Wales are the most tested in the world according to the General Teaching Council which wants standard assessment tests taken by pupils up to the age of 16 to be abolished.
At the age of seven pupils take the test Key Stage 1 - in English and Maths - their test papers are marked in school.
Aged 11 they take Key Stage 2 - when science is added to the test - these results are marked externally and published in league tables.
At the age of 14 - pupils take key stage 3 tests again in just English, maths and science - again the results appear in league tables.
The council's demand - made in a submission to the Commons Education Select Committee has been welcomed by the national union of teachers which is calling for a return to a sampling system of testing where less than 1% of primary school children sit exams.
The Government and the Conservatives are agreed that national tests - reported in league tables - is essential if parents are to make informed choices about their children's education:
But the government is considering a change to the testing system - they're piloting something called a progression test that would be taken by pupils some time in the last three years of their primary education when - a bit like with a music exam - their teacher thought they were ready to take it.
