Council leaders and some opposition politicians have warned the SNP’s proposal to introduce national testing in Scotland’s primary schools could be a “retrograde step” for the education system.
The new national, standardised assessments are to be brought in for pupils in primaries one, four and seven, as well as for youngsters in the third year of secondary school.
They will be trialled in some schools next year before being rolled out across the country in 2017.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie claimed testing young pupils would “lead to teaching to the test and every child put under unacceptable pressure to make the numbers look good”.
Councillor Stephanie Primrose, education spokeswoman for local government body Cosla, also voiced concerns that the national education framework could turn the clock back “if we are not careful”.
She added: “If not handled correctly, this risks being a retrograde step for Scottish education that heaps more pressure on pupils and teachers, and leads to inaccurate and unfair comparisons between schools.”
But Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said she was pleased “our repeated and sustained calls” had been heeded, calling it a “massive U-turn but a welcome one”.
“We need to measure ourselves against the rest of the world so our children have the very best chance of success,” she went on.
Kezia Dugdale, Labour’s new leader in Scotland, said the SNP Government did not have a record to be proud of on education.
“Almost half of the poorest kids leaving primary school are unable to write properly or to count properly. That should shame us as a nation,” she added.
The new assessments will focus on literacy and numeracy, and will be based on different tests already used by local councils, so should not increase teacher workload, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. She also insisted she had no desire to see “crude league tables” that distort understanding.