Gillian Shephard should make her second U-turn. Wait until the tests are bedded down and work with teachers to find a fairer and more helpful way of assessing teaching quality - that is our advice. The 1995 SATs Children and teachers in primary schools have been unfairly criticised. The overcrowding of the curriculum and its definition in terms of ten separate subjects led to less emphasis upon the teaching of English and mathematics in the crucially important early years in school. Primary teachers are working in grossly under-resourced schools.
Many buildings are old and badly maintained.
Classes are large. Successive governments have squeezed local education authority finance and each year sees cuts in provision. In Oxfordshire, for example, the Standard Spending Assessment, which represents the Govemment's view of what the Council should spend, is almost 6 million below a standstill budget. More cuts in primary schools are inevitable. The Secretary of State for Education has said that the tests are not yet bedded down.