Ministers challenged over assessment reforms
Government changes to the system of pupil assessment in England will drive up teachers workload still further, making a mockery of ministers’ claims to be taking action to address teacher wellbeing, representatives at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, have heard today.
Representatives at the Conference, which is being held in Birmingham, have criticised the way in which the Westminster Government has managed the removal of levels from the assessment system, which is driving schools to create and implement their own, often bureaucratic, assessment and testing structures for pupils.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“The failure of the Government to properly think through the potential consequences of its reforms to the assessment system has led to increased workload and bureaucracy in schools.
“Assessment Without Levels was promoted by ministers as a reform that would enable teachers in England to focus on teaching and learning; but, instead, it has had the effect of driving futile and workload intensive data management systems and practices which are not only financially costly but which are also a distraction from teaching and learning.
“This is yet another example of the gulf between the Westminster Government’s rhetoric which claims to be committed to tackling teacher workload, and the reality of its policies which are having the opposite impact by piling ever greater workload pressures onto an already exhausted and overburdened teaching workforce.”
