SADLY, your We Say editor and Charles Clarke appear to have forgotten why the SATs were introduced.
They were introduced, primarily, because parents were unable to trust the teachers to educate their pupils and furnish them with the first tools for education, namely literacy and numeracy. The teachers disliked them then. The teachers dislike them now.
Unsurprising, that, since SATs reflect teachers' effectiveness, or lack of it, judging by the number of pupils leaving school at 16 unable to string a sentence together or even do basic mental arithmetic.
Evidently, the Evening News and Charles Clarke think that returning to those days of teachers effecting their own assessments is progress.
Quite how your editor equates literacy-numeracy and civil obedience as being mutually exclusive in the classroom requires, as they say locally, your editor's head felt.
NICK CHANCE,
Bank Lane,
Severn Stoke,
Worcester.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article