Exclusive:'Waste of time, effort, money': Government has spent £30m on controversial school tests for five year olds
The standardised tests for primary ones in Scotland have been controversial since their introduction
Nearly £30 million has been spent on controversial testing of four and five years olds in Scottish schools.
National testing of primary one pupils has been a consistently contentious policy with repeated calls to scrap it.
New figures reveal the Scottish government has spent £29,213,980.06 on the scheme - not including teacher time.
Almost 600,000 tests, introduced during John Swinney’s time as education secretary, have been carried out on Scotland’s youngest pupils.
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie, who requested the government figures, said: “As Education Secretary, this testing programme was John Swinney’s baby so the blame for wasting £30m sits at his door.
“Parents and teachers have warned that these tests are stressful, time-consuming and do not tell them anything that they do not already know.”
Calling the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) testing “Thatcherite”, Mr Rennie went on to say his party would scrap the testing.
Ending national testing of P1s is also a Scottish Labour manifesto pledge.
Scottish Labour education spokesman Paul O’Kane said “The dismal legacy of John Swinney’s time as Education Secretary continues to hang over Scottish education.
“These exams are utterly discredited and put needless pressure on kids and teachers – it beggars belief that the SNP has continued to waste millions of pounds of public money on them.”
The Scottish government scrapped the nation’s sample-based survey - the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) - in 2017 in favour of SNSA.
This testing has caused repeated controversy with the OECD questioning its value and the EIS union calling it “a monumental distraction, with little impact other than adding to the bureaucracy that bedevils teachers’ working lives.”
Mr Rennie added: “What’s more it exposes how little respect the SNP have the Scottish Parliament. Parliament told them to stop these tests but they have ploughed on regardless.
“If Westminster treated them like they would never stop bleating about it.”
In 2019, when the now First Minister Mr Swinney was education secretary, the Scottish Government received almost 400 pages of feedback on national testing of P1 pupils.
Teacher feedback warned children were “distressed and bored”, that the P1 tests served no purpose and “didn’t really tell us more than we already knew”.
Other senior teachers said at the time that “results are not reliable” and they are “a waste of time, effort and money”.
In September 2018, the Scottish parliament voted by 63 votes to 61 for a motion calling on the Scottish government to halt the tests in P1.
The Scottish government, however, said it would continue with the testing regime.
However, the tests have continued to cause controversy.
In November 2022, the SNP’s then-policy convenor, Toni Giugliano, described the testing as “compounding pressures and mental health problems.”
SNP education security Jenny Gilruth said literacy and numeracy rates are at the highest levels on record and pointed to a “£1 billion real terms increase in spending over the last decade across our schools”.
“Meanwhile, we have the lowest teacher-pupil ratio, highest spend per pupil, and best paid teachers on these islands,” she added.
"There is no pass or fail, revision or preparation for these assessments which are an important part of monitoring our literacy and numeracy rates, ensuring progression and supporting teachers’ professional judgement.
"We want to ensure the very best education for our children and young people - that will always be a priority for the SNP.”
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