The official extent of cramming

Civitas, 27 April 2007

Next month, Warwick Mansell is to bring out a book which will finally turn speculation and guesstimates about the extent of test coaching in primary schools into definitive, and above all, official figures.

Education by Numbers: The Tyranny of Testing, uncovers ‘secret government figures’ from the QCA which have recently been released under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as official government advice for schools on how to do well in tests. Mansell’s book reveals that for four months every year, schools take up nearly half of all teaching time in Year 6 (when pupils are 11 years-old) preparing for the national Key Stage 2 SATs. As Mansell points out, these hours of preparation (for a set of tests theoretically designed to gauge pupils aptitudes at 11) do not include test preparation outside lesson time. A third of primaries reported to the QCA that they offer ‘booster’ classes, test preparation classes that take place at lunchtime or outside school hours. Also worth bearing in mind is the fact that the 150 hours of in-class cramming time is only the official number: from my own experience as a primary teacher, history, art, geography and even P.E lessons may well be replaced by test preparation as well. Indeed the official QCA figures show that the amount of P.E done in Year 6 is lower than throughout the rest of the years. The National Association of Head Teachers’ General Secretary, Mick Brookes, argued that the approach to these national tests are having a ‘devastating effect on Year 6: ‘…to spend such a large proportion of the week being trained to regurgitate answers is not a good use of pupils’ time’ – to put it mildly. It is also worth bearing in mind that test preparation doesn’t only affect Year 6 pupils, as Key Stage 1 SATs are taken in Year 2 (when pupils are 7 years-old).
The point of good primary test results, presumably, is to show how good an education schools are providing. Yet if all this cramming is required, either this must not be happening or the tests are ineffective (consensus seems to be that both conclusions apply). The greatest perversity of course, is that schools are actively disabled from providing a good education whilst they are compelled to cram.