Testing times for primary pupils
We refer to the decision of Minister Dempsey to make standardised testing of pupils a requirement at primary school level.
As educationalists - of whom the majority have an average of 30 years’ primary teaching experience each - we are puzzled and dismayed at Minister Dempsey’s sudden decision to impose mandatory standardised testing on primary school children.
Our primary school curriculum has been widely hailed as being innovative, holistic and imaginative. One of its essential features is its recognition that there are different kinds of learning and that individual children learn in different ways. Our curriculum places importance on all areas of a child’s development and promotes assessment as one of its significant features.
In what way will the introduction of mandatory testing in two subject areas - English and Mathematics - give the minister an overall picture of standards in his schools? Or is he saying that only literacy and numeracy matter?
How will testing literacy and numeracy tell the minister what he needs to know about schools that his teachers, through their union representatives, and his own inspectorate have not already been telling him for years?
Is the Minister unaware of the OECD statistics that show us to have the second largest pupil-teacher ratio in Europe (with only Turkey being worse) and that demonstrate how little of our GDP we spend on education compared with our neighbours in Europe?
In Wales, Key Stage 1 tests were dropped two years ago; the rest will be phased out over the next three years following a review that said tests ‘narrow the curriculum’.
Imagine the seven- or 12-year-old who has not attained the required scores in their standardised test. Effectively, they have been deemed a failure before they can even begin properly on their journey of learning. Parents and teachers will question where the recognition of diverse aspects of learning is, and where the growth in self-esteem is, as they try to reassemble the shattered persona of the ‘failed’ seven-year-old.
How can Mr Dempsey call on any educator to become involved in such degrading and demeaning activities, especially in light of our inspiring Primary School Curriculum? Testing will not tell the Minister what he needs to know. Teachers already use myriad summative and formative evaluative ways to assess development of their students.
Teacher observation is a unique diagnostic tool. Backed up with standardised tests (usually MICRA-T and SIGMA-T) we try to provide children who seem to be delayed in specific areas of their academic development with extra help from a learning support teacher. The Minister has very recently been asked by the INTO’s John Carr to increase the funding for this service.
Listen to what your teachers have been telling you, Minister: improve the pupil-teacher ratio; adequately fund the resourcing of all subject areas; increase the numbers of learning support and resource teachers. Meanwhile, we will continue to do what we do best - keep our educational standards high despite inadequate resources.
Margaret Cahill, Máirín Glenn Breda Long, Patricia Mannix McNamara Caitriona McDonagh, Mary Roche, Bernie Sullivan
Doctoral Candidates
Dept of Education and Professional Studies
University of Limerick
