Weighing pigs

Weighing a pig doesn’t make it fatter’ is, I have been told, a teacher’s saying, and what a great saying it is. It refers to the obsession with assessment of children. Sorry did I write obsession. I really meant the ‘act of’. Honestly.

Politicians are preoccupied with assessing children, so much so that English schools in particular have been accused of teaching to test. If it’s not in the exam they’re not interested in teaching it.

I listened to four MSPs on Thursday night – one education secretary and four hopefuls. Three of them were very keen for more assessment in primary schools.

Under the 5 to 14 curriculum we had national assessments in Scotland but I have spoken to teachers who told me that they didn’t need assessments to see how a child was doing. They knew anyway.

The politicians’ argument is that parents want to know how their children are getting on. But this can be done without branding them and putting them under pressure. What’s wrong with a good, honest talk at parents’ evening?

Finland

I read this week that schools in Finland have been so inundated with requests for visits from teachers from other countries to come and see why their education system is so good, that they are no longer participating.

Now it has long been established that Finland has one of the best education systems in the world, and has very low illiteracy rates. On top of this, international surveys put it pretty high up the top ten with regards maths and science.

Many of the reasons for Finland’s success are well established – graduate educated teachers; waiting until they are seven before the children are taught to read and write; no mandatory exams before he age of seventeen so that the emphasis is put on learning, rather than teaching to exam.

A visit to Finland may result in British teachers learning more, but sadly, I doubt it would result in many, or even any schools implementing any of these. The changes need to be made my national government, and it doesn’t matter who we have in power, the changes that would be needed would be far too great for any party to implement.