BrianGarst.com

Some hysterical UK educrats claim their students are “in state of panic”. Their brilliant solution? Abolish testing!

All national exams should be abolished for children under 16 because the stress caused by over-testing is poisoning attitudes towards education, according to an influential teaching body.

In a remarkable attack on the government’s policy of rolling national testing of children from the age of seven, the General Teaching Council is calling for a ‘fundamental and urgent review of the testing regime’. In a report it says exams are failing to improve standards, leaving pupils demotivated and stressed and encouraging bored teenagers to drop out of school.

Testing is not exactly a new development in education. Here’s a novel thought: If tests are causing stress, maybe it’s because feel-good teaching methods that emphasize self-esteem over performance have left students entirely unprepared to meet the challenge. It’s not the test that is stressful, it’s being put in a situation where one lacks the knowledge and skills to perform. And while you can eliminate school testing, you can’t eliminate life’s tests (though big government welfare states certainly have tried). What students need is better preparation and teaching, not coddling that will only harm them in the long run.