Bring back testing for young pupils in Wales, expert says

Tests for seven and 11-year-olds should be reintroduced in Wales, a leading United Kingdom education expert has told the Western Mail. Bringing back the controversial tests would drive up standards and GCSE results, he said. The widely loathed tests, which are still used in England, were ditched by the Welsh Assembly Government in one of its first acts to create a revolutionary new education system. Teachers, who pressed for the change, strongly oppose testing which they said stressed pupils at too young and age and had no educational benefit.

But the expert, David Hopkins, a professor of education at London University’s Institute of Education in London and chairman of the International Networking for Educational Transformation Network, said testing at seven and 11 helped provide a framework for high standards. He said that Welsh teenagers’ poor results in international tests last year were directly related to a lack of tests and targets earlier on in school. Read more about the controversy at icWales.co.uk.