Government's SATs U-turn welcome - Brooke

12.00.00am GMT Wed 15th Oct 2008

Commenting on Ed Balls' announcement that the Government is to scrap SATs for 14-year-olds, Liberal Democrat Children, Schools and Families Spokesperson, Annette Brooke said:

"I welcome the Government's complete U-turn. The SATs tests taken by 14-year-olds are not only a waste of time but have been highly unreliable over the last few years.

"As a member of the Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families, I have had serious ongoing concerns about this matter and am glad that the Government have finally taken the situation in hand."

"This U-turn needs to be just the first move in restoring confidence in standards in English education and putting the needs of young people first instead of the current system of factory farming our children.

"Ed Balls needs to establish a genuinely independent Educational Standards Authority to sample pupil performance each year so that we really know what is happening to standards and that results are not being inflated by teaching to the test or the dumbing down of exams.

"It is important to retain testing at 11 years so that parents have real information about results in primary schools and that the focus is on giving young people the key skills they need to thrive in secondary education."