Most of the teachers believe that the officially prescribed test for the primary pupils will just give these children a hard time. The majority of the teachers who attended the conference would like to cancel it.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference delegates say that the changes in the exams, which include new grammar, spelling and punctuation tests for 7- and 11-year-olds, have been brought too soon giving the pupils little time to prepare, according to news from Independent.
The tests are now harder and their concern is the children as young as 7 might feel that they may become disappointments. They are calling on Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary to cancel all the tests this year.
England is implementing the new test. Wales has removed holding primary school tests as a requirement, and Scotland did not even introduce it.
The teachers will boycott the exams next year if Morgan refused to cancel it. The pupils are scheduled to take the exams for seven and 11 years old early May.
Four-year-olds will have a new baseline test when they start school, and it will be introduced in September. Six-year-olds will take their phonics test by the end of the summer term.
According to Christine Blower, NUT's general secretary, teachers believe that the tests are inappropriate for those age groups. The teachers were dismayed and angry at the primary tests, The Guardian reported.
"Far from improving outcomes for 11-year-olds, the endless high-stakes testing of such young children could easily switch children off from learning, increase their anxiety levels, and harm their self-confidence," she said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Department of Education said that the assessments will pursue as planned to measure the progress made by the primary school pupils.
"It is disappointing to see that the NUT are taking this approach, which would disrupt children's education, rather than working with us constructively as other unions have.
"Parents rightly expect us to ensure that their children are leaving primary school having mastered literacy and numeracy and that is why we have tests at the end of key stage 2," the spokesperson said.
