Is there a fresh shock in store when the Sats fiasco is over?

Last updated 11:28, Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Headteachers must have thought that the silly season had arrived early when they were given the news that the Key Stage Two and Three results would be late.

Sats may not be popular with the teaching profession, but schools do spend many hours preparing their pupils and the children do put in a great deal of hard work.

Obviously the contract was awarded to a company that was unprepared to cope with the task and the Government was warned that there would be problems with the marking and with the timetable for delivery of the results.

This contract is worth some £154 million, which is a staggering amount to spend on just part of the entire examination system.

So I sincerely hope that the Government levies the maximum penalty on the contractors, if only to recognise the sheer disappointment, inconvenience and frustration caused to a million or more pupils and their schools by this significant cock-up.

However, this must not mask the significance of the national results when they eventually emerge.

It is forecast that there could be a drop of some two per cent in national scores this year. If this were to be the case then it would be a massive embarrassment for a Government that has set so much store by its targets as a means by which the success of its policies can be judged.

It might not rate as highly as the credit squeeze, fuel prices, inflation or the 10 per cent tax fiasco in the political stakes, but it would add to the sense of crisis.

Many will want to use the delay in the Sats results as a reason to abolish these tests altogether despite the fact that these are two quite separate issues.

No government in England is going to get rid of Sats unless it can be assured that there will be a system in place that can determine how well the nation’s children are doing at key points in their schooling.

Indeed there are many parents and employers, let alone Joe Public, who would dearly like to receive an honest answer when perfectly reasonable questions are asked aboutstandards of education.

In the last few weeks there have been several issues raised that cast doubt on the Government’s repeated assurances that standards are rising year on year.

The employers’ organisation, the Confederation of British Industry, has criticised the application of the new diplomas to more traditional subjects such as humanities.

It rightly points out that we already have the GCSE that is designed to assess at 16.

Then came evidence of a severe shortage of physicists, with profound implications for the future of sciences in schools and universities.

Too many students are already avoiding the so-called harder subjects, and schools are accused of guiding their pupils towards the perceived softer subjects in order to maximise results. If schools cannot recruit science and maths teachers to teach to the highest levels, the position will deteriorate further.

At the same time an increase in the university drop-out rate was announced. This is a direct result of the policy of “bums on seats”, generated by the dire need for income and by the Government’s artificial target of 50 per cent in higher education.

If you add the concern about the variable quality of degree courses, with, for instance, Oxbridge demanding a much higher volume of work than some other universities, it is easy to see why the debate about standards will not go away.

Indeed it will become more acute as the general election approaches.

It might be too much to expect politicians, whose future depends on the outcome, to be totally honest with the public.

But I hope the voices of “those in the know” will be heard loud and clear because the future of this country depends on the standards achieved by its young people.