Teachers blasted as ‘irresponsible’ over Sats boycott

The debate over primary school tests erupted into a war of words today with ministers and headteachers accusing each other of "irresponsible" and "outrageous" behaviour.

Two of the biggest education unions — the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers — are planning a joint boycott of Sats next year to force the Government to abolish the tests.

But Schools Secretary Ed Balls's officials condemned the planned action and accused the unions of denying parents crucial information about their children's progress.

A spokesman for the Department for Children said: "Heads have a statutory duty to administer [Sats] and any action to disrupt the smooth running of national tests would be a disappointing and irresponsible step that would only serve to cause inconvenience and disruption to teachers, schools and parents."

The comments provoked an angry response from Mick Brookes, the usually diplomatic general secretary of the NAHT, who accused the Government of "misleading" the public. His union represents 85 per cent of primary school heads. "To suggest that colleagues wish to hide information from parents is deliberately misleading, insulting and outrageous," he said.

"We would still prefer a solution arrived at by negotiation. It is not the NAHT and NUT who are being irresponsible but ministers in allowing this regime to continue despite overwhelming evidence of the damage it does to children's education."

Mr Brookes said the only disruption that a boycott would cause would be to the Government's "cottage industry" of excessive testing, which reduced learning to "numerical nonsense".

Unless Mr Balls agrees to their demands, school staff will refuse to invigilate or mark tests due to be taken by 600,000 primary pupils next year.

A succession of research papers has found that the last year of primary school is too often devoted to coaching children to pass Sats in English, maths and science, at the expense of subjects such as music and history. The unions' complaints have been sharpened by last year's marking disaster, which saw results delayed for 1.2 million pupils amid unprecedented administrative failures.

In the wake of the fiasco, Mr Balls announced that Sats for 14-year-olds would be scrapped from this year. Now primary schools want him to abolish the exams for 11-year-olds.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said: "Primary schools' patience in enduring the damage caused by the tests has been stretched to the limit and beyond. The Government needs to understand that this year's national curriculum tests will be the last."

Mr Brookes said his members were "imposing a timeline" on ministers for scrapping Sats.

"It is unconscionable that we should stand by and allow the educational experience of children to be blighted and for colleagues to be humiliated and demeaned on an annual basis," he said.

The unions have agreed to put identical motions to their spring conferences — which are almost certain to be passed — proposing a boycott of Sats for 11-year-olds and classroom assessments for seven-year-olds next year.