On your marks

6:19am Friday 8th August 2008

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We are baffled how results can be issued for national curriculum tests when so many children have yet to receive their marks.

In Oxfordshire alone, 15 primary schools are still waiting for some tests to be marked.

In other schools, where papers were returned on time, teachers have justifiable concerns about the standards of marking.

Some have found misspellings marked correct, and correct spellings labelled as errors.

It is tempting to agree with newly-retired headteacher Keith Eaton, who summed up the entire process as 'an absolute mess'.

Education Minister Jim Knight apparently has confidence in the marking and with more than 90 per cent of data available he believes it is 'statistically reliable'.

Even if that is the case, the results from the whole of England showed a mere one per cent increase in the number of 11-year-olds reaching the required standard in English and maths.

The percentage of Oxfordshire pupils achieving the expected level four in English and maths combined rose from 72 to 73 per cent. Girls continued to outperform boys, with 75 per cent achieving level four in both subjects compared with 71 per cent of boys. The gap between the genders was two per cent up on last year.

Taking English and science together, the overall number of pupils reaching level four or above fell and those reaching levels five or above, was down in all areas apart from boys' maths.

Compared with national results, the county's 11-year-olds performed in line with the average, with girls above average in English, boys above average in maths and both genders slightly below average in science.

The SATS results are supposed to give secondary schools the information they need for assessing the ability of next month's new intake of pupils.

But there is a growing concern that they are not doing the job and a survey of secondary school teachers has found that they believe the SATS results have become a flawed measure, with primary schools 'teaching to the test'.

The survey echoed a report in May by the Commons School Select Committee which also found 'widespread' teaching to the test.

Both argue that testing every 11-year-old and 14-year-old should be abandoned and replaced by smaller-scale examinations of a sample of pupils across the country.

The argument runs that these tests, which would be carired out without prior warning, would be less stressful for pupils and teachers alike.

Combined with the fiasco over this year's marking there is a serious case for a rethink of the whole testing system.

Whatever system is used, in a prosperous county like ours performing in line with the average is simply not good enough and we are delighted to hear that Oxfordshire County Council is determined to see big improvements in results in coming years.

With about a third of pupils still leaving primary school without grasping the finer points of reading, writing and maths, those improvements cannot come soon enough.