LIVERPOOL headteachers have renewed their call for SATS exams to be abolished.
They have labelled the exam results for 11-year-olds completely unreliable and say the marking fiasco has been a disgrace.
The criticisms come the same day Merseyside students achieved record results in English, maths and science.
Provisional results for Key Stage 2 show that despite improvements year-on-year, students in Knowsley and Liverpool still fall behind their national counterparts.
In Liverpool, students achieved record results of 79% in English, 76% in maths and 86% in science, just falling short of the national averages of 81%, 78% and 88% respectively.
The figures have been labelled by education bosses as an amazing achievement which bodes well for the forthcoming GCSE and AS/A-Level results. Knowsley students are also improving, with big strides in traditional problem areas such as boys studying English and girls studying maths.
In Wirral, English results have improved from last year’s provisional results of 79% to 85%, maths from 78% to 79% and science from 86% to 91%. Sefton and St Helens have also posted rises and closed the gap between the sexes in all three subjects.
But the Government’s decision to publish the results has caused outrage among headteachers nationally.
On Merseyside many schools are still waiting for late and missing results and are concerned about the quality of marking.
Ian Andain, headteacher of Broadgreen High School and secretary of the Liverpool Association of Secondary Headteachers, said: “The organisation of this year’s exams has been an absolute disgrace and I don’t think they should have been published.
“At my school we haven’t received any of the science papers back and we have had to send back the English papers to be re-marked.
“There are far too many concerns amongst teachers about the reliability of the exams and they should be abolished as a waste of public money.
“Everybody apart from the Government wants them scrapped. They have no value and don’t accurately reflect how a student is progressing.”
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has also called for a fundamental review of the system and have campaigned for the exams to be scrapped.
Martin Fisher, NUT regional officer, said: “We feel SATS are damaging children’s education and put teachers, schools, parents and children under unreasonable pressure.
“The Government are the only people who put credence in the league tables and there’s been a complete failure and incompetence in the marking system.
“The errors have caused problems for schools, who now have the burden and financial cost of remarks instead of focussing on benefits to children’s education.”
